Author Archives: woit

Competition and Survival in Modern Academia

Posted on February 5, 2025 by woit

Jesper Grimstrup and Jarl Sidelmann have an interesting new paper up on the arXiv, entitled Competition and survival in modern academia: A bibliometric case study of theoretical high-energy physics. It uses bibliometric data to study career paths in hep-th, especially … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Nature Research Intelligence

Posted on January 25, 2025 by woit

I just noticed something new showing up in Google searches, summaries of the state of scientific research areas such as this one about String Theory And Quantum Gravity. They’re produced by Nature Research Intelligence, which has been around for a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 15 Comments

Strings 2025

Posted on January 10, 2025 by woit

Enjoying a vacation on a Caribbean porch, and just had a couple hours to kill with good internet access. For some reason I spent part of them listening to the summary panel discussions at Strings 2025, which just ended today. … Continue reading →

Posted in Strings 2XXX | 27 Comments

A Milestone

Posted on January 2, 2025 by woit

I recently realized that this would be the 2000th posting on this blog and was hoping to have something interesting to post for the occasion. Things though have been very quiet and I’m about to go off on vacation, so … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

String Theory Debate

Posted on December 28, 2024 by woit

Recently Curt Jaimungal offered to host a debate over string theory between me and a willing string theorist. Joe Conlon took him up on the offer and our discussion is now available. I think it turned out quite well, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 37 Comments

This Week’s Hype, etc.

Posted on December 17, 2024 by woit

NYU today put out a press release claiming that Physicists ‘Bootstrap’ Validity of String Theory, telling us that NYU and Caltech scientists develop innovative mathematical approach to back existence of long-held framework explaining all physical reality. and String theory, conceptualized … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 40 Comments

(Blinkered) Visions in Quantum Gravity

Posted on December 13, 2024 by woit

This past summer Nordita ran a program on quantum gravity, featuring lectures and panel discussions on various approaches to the subject. Lecture notes from the six mini-courses are now available here. There’s also a long, 39 author document called Visions … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Wick Rotating Weyl Spinor Fields

Posted on December 7, 2024 by woit

It’s been taking me forever to sort out and write down the details of implications of the proposal described here. While waiting for that to be done, I thought it might be a good idea to write up one piece … Continue reading →

Posted in Euclidean Twistor Unification | 14 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on November 22, 2024 by woit

If a post-truth field of science is going to keep going, it needs to convince funders and the public that progress is being made, so there’s a continual need for people uninterested in truth and willing to produce appropriate propaganda. … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 7 Comments

The Impossible Man

Posted on November 15, 2024 by woit

There’s a new book out this week, a biography of Roger Penrose by Patchen Barss, with the title The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the cost of genius. Penrose is one of the greatest figures in physics and mathematical physics … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 32 Comments