Author Archives: woit

What’s the difference between Copenhagen and Everett?

Posted on August 18, 2019 by woit

I’ve just finished reading Sean Carroll’s forthcoming new book, will write something about it in the next few weeks. Reading the book and thinking about it did clarify various issues for me, and I thought it might be a good … Continue reading →

Posted in Quantum Mechanics | 27 Comments

Where We Are Now

Posted on August 6, 2019 by woit

For much of the last 25 years, a huge question hanging over the field of fundamental physics has been that of what judgement results from the LHC would provide about supersymmetry, which underpins the most popular speculative ideas in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 48 Comments

Quick Links

Posted on July 24, 2019 by woit

A few quick links: Philip Ball at Quanta has a nice article on “Quantum Darwinism” and experiments designed to exhibit actual toy examples of the idea in action (I don’t think “testing” the idea is quite the right language in … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments

Prospects for contact of string theory with experiments

Posted on July 13, 2019 by woit

Nima Arkani-Hamed today gave a “vision talk” at Strings 2019, entitled Prospects for contact of string theory with experiments which essentially admitted there are no such prospects. He started by joking that he had been assigned this talk topic by … Continue reading →

Posted in Strings 2XXX | 20 Comments

Against Symmetry

Posted on July 10, 2019 by woit

One of the great lessons of twentieth century science is that our most fundamental physical laws are built on symmetry principles. Poincaré space-time symmetry, gauge symmetries, and the symmetries of canonical quantization largely determine the structure of the Standard Model, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 18 Comments

What happens when we can’t test scientific theories?

Posted on July 8, 2019 by woit

Just got back from a wonderful trip to Chile, where the weather was perfect for watching the solar eclipse from the beach at La Serena. While I was away, the Guardian Science Weekly podcast I participated in before leaving for … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments

Various

Posted on June 18, 2019 by woit

First something really important: chalk. If you care about chalk, you should watch this video and read this story. Next, something slightly less important: money. The Simons Foundation in recent years has been having a huge (positive, if you ask … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 17 Comments

Not So Spooky Action at a Distance

Posted on June 11, 2019 by woit

I’ve recently read another new popular book about quantum mechanics, Quantum Strangeness by George Greenstein. Before getting to saying something about the book, I need to get something off my chest: what’s all this nonsense about Bell’s theorem and supposed … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Quantum Mechanics | 62 Comments

Various News Items

Posted on June 4, 2019 by woit

For physicists: For the latest news on US HEP funding, see presentations at this recent HEPAP meeting. It is rarely publicly acknowledged by scientists, but during the Trump years funding for a lot of scientific research research has increased, often … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 18 Comments

The Universe Speaks in Numbers

Posted on May 24, 2019 by woit

Graham Farmelo’s new book The Universe Speaks in Numbers has recently been published in the UK, US publication is next week. The topic of the book is one close to my heart, the relationship of mathematics and physics. I’m very … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 45 Comments