Author Archives: woit

Strings 2024

Posted on June 4, 2024 by woit

There’s been very little blogging here the past month or so. For part of the time I was on vacation, but another reason is that there just hasn’t been very much to write about. Today I thought I’d start looking … Continue reading →

Posted in Strings 2XXX | 31 Comments

Wormholes, Part Deux

Posted on May 27, 2024 by woit

I had thought that the universally negative reaction to the fall 2022 wormhole publicity stunt meant that we’d never hear more about this, with even the editors of Quanta magazine having understood that they’d been had. While away on vacation … Continue reading →

Posted in Wormhole Publicity Stunts | 4 Comments

Various and Sundry

Posted on April 28, 2024 by woit

The semester here is coming to a close. I’m way behind writing up notes for the lectures I’ve been giving, which are ending with covering the details of the Standard Model. This summer I’ll try to finish the notes and … Continue reading →

Posted in Euclidean Twistor Unification, Langlands | 14 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on April 23, 2024 by woit

Until about a year and a half ago, the way to get funding in physics was to somehow associate yourself to the hot trend of quantum computing and quantum information theory. Large parts of the string theory and quantum gravity … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 23 Comments

Science Outreach News

Posted on April 16, 2024 by woit

A few items on the science outreach front: The Oscars of Science were held Saturday night in Hollywood, with a long list of A-listers in attendance, led by Kim Kardashian. More here, here and here. You’ll be able to watch … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized, Wormhole Publicity Stunts | 27 Comments

What is String Theory?

Posted on April 11, 2024 by woit

This semester the KITP has been running a program asking What is String Theory?, which is winding up next week, and was promising to “arrive at a deeper answer to the question in the title.” It seems though that this … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 25 Comments

How I fell out of love with academia

Posted on April 5, 2024 by woit

Sabine Hossenfelder today posted a new video on youtube which everyone in theoretical physics should watch and think seriously about. She tells honestly in detail the story of her career and experiences in academia, explaining very clearly exactly what the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 35 Comments

A Report From Mochizuki

Posted on March 25, 2024 by woit

I don’t really have time to write seriously about this, and there’s a very good argument that this is a topic anyone with any sense should be ignoring, but I just can’t resist linking to the latest in the abc … Continue reading →

Posted in abc Conjecture | 51 Comments

David Tong: Lectures on the Standard Model

Posted on March 22, 2024 by woit

David Tong has produced a series of very high quality lectures on theoretical physics over the years, available at his website here. Recently a new set of lectures has appeared, on the topic of the Standard Model. Skimming through these, … Continue reading →

Posted in Euclidean Twistor Unification, Uncategorized | 13 Comments

Abel Prize to Michel Talagrand

Posted on March 21, 2024 by woit

I was very pleased to hear yesterday that this year’s Abel Prize has been awarded to Michel Talagrand. For more about Talagrand and his mathematics, see the Abel site, Quanta, NYT, Nature and elsewhere. Also, see lots of reactions on … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments