Author Archives: woit

This and That

Posted on January 23, 2020 by woit

I was sorry to hear of the death a few months ago of Tony Smith, who had been a frequent commenter on this blog and others. Unfortunately my interactions with him mainly involved trying to discourage him from hijacking the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Why the foundations of physics have not progressed for 40 years

Posted on January 13, 2020 by woit

Sabine Hossenfelder has a new piece out, making many of the same arguments she has been making for a while about the state of fundamental theory in physics. These have a lot in common with arguments that Lee Smolin and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 48 Comments

Musings on the Current Status of HEP

Posted on January 4, 2020 by woit

To start the new decade there’s an article very much worth reading by Misha Shifman, entitled Musings on the Current State of HEP. It’s somewhat of an update of something he wrote back in 2012, which I wrote about here. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments

London Calling with Career Opportunities

Posted on January 2, 2020 by woit

At some point within the past couple years I noticed that one blog that had Not Even Wrong on its blogroll was the blog of Dominic Cummings, who was often getting credited with masterminding the political campaign that got the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 30 Comments

Are Physical Laws Inevitable?

Posted on December 11, 2019 by woit

The last couple days have seen various discussions online generated by a piece at Quanta Magazine with the dubious headline Why the Laws of Physics Are Inevitable and an even worse sub-headline claiming “physicists working on the ‘bootstrap’ have rederived … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 47 Comments

This and That

Posted on December 2, 2019 by woit

First, a few physics items: Mark Alpert has a new novel out, Saint Joan of New York, a thriller subtitled “A Novel About God and String Theory”, which is an accurate description. It’s published by Springer, so you may be … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Multiverse Mania, Uncategorized | 23 Comments

News From HEPAP

Posted on November 24, 2019 by woit

For presentations a couple days ago at the latest HEPAP meeting, see here. One piece of news, from this presentation, is that there likely will be a delay in the scheduled startup of the HL-LHC, with the next LHC run … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 26 Comments

Terrifying Odyssey Through a Cursed World

Posted on November 18, 2019 by woit

The great German artist Anselm Kiefer now has a show up in London at the White Cube Bermondsey gallery, with a review in the Guardian entitled Terrifying Odyssey Through a Cursed World. The review describes some of the works as … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

The Man Who Solved the Market

Posted on November 14, 2019 by woit

There’s an excellent new book out about Jim Simons and Renaissance Technologies, The Man Who Solved the Market, by Gregory Zuckerman. I recommend it enthusiastically to anyone interested in the story of how a geometer ended up being worth \$23 … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 14 Comments

Various Links

Posted on November 12, 2019 by woit

Now back from a trip to the West Coast, here are some accumulated things that may be of interest: One thing I didn’t do while there was attend the 2020 Breakthrough Prize symposium. For videos of three talks about supergravity, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 21 Comments