Author Archives: woit

Hollywood Theoretical Physics Week

Posted on November 5, 2014 by woit

Just got back from an opening night showing of the new sci-fi film Interstellar at the Ziegfeld theater here in New York. If you want some idea of what the film is about, trailers are here and here. Warning: spoilers … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews | 31 Comments

Last Week’s Hype

Posted on November 3, 2014 by woit

When looking at the nonsense spread around the media by this week’s university press-release-driven hype about string field theory “explaining quantum mechanics”, I realized that maybe I shouldn’t have ignored last week’s university press-release-driven hype, which was about the multiverse … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 13 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on November 3, 2014 by woit

From commenter Hendrik, there’s the news that USC has put out a press release claiming that String Theory Could Be the Foundation of Quantum Mechanics. These claims are based on this paper, which argues that finding the Heisenberg commutation relations … Continue reading →

Posted in Quantum Mechanics, This Week's Hype | 5 Comments

News, Interesting and Otherwise

Posted on November 3, 2014 by woit

On the side of interesting good news, I just heard that yet another Fields Medalist has a blog. This time it’s David Mumford, who is blogging here, with his latest posting about path integrals. His website contains a wealth of … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News, Multiverse Mania, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Breakthrough Prize Ceremony

Posted on October 29, 2014 by woit

There’s a story in Variety this afternoon announcing that Seth MacFarlane will be the host this year for the ceremony in Silicon Valley announcing the 2015 Breakthrough Prizes. MacFarlane was the host of the 2013 Oscars. Other celebrities there to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments

Yet More News

Posted on October 24, 2014 by woit

Charlie Munger, the billionaire business associate of Warren Buffett, has donated $65 million to the KITP at UCSB for the construction of a residence for visitors. For more on this, see a UCSB story, a New York Times article, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 26 Comments

Various News

Posted on October 15, 2014 by woit

Various news about the usual topics: Natalie Wolchover at Quanta magazine keeps coming up with great, in-depth stories about interesting new topics in physics that are getting no attention elsewhere. Her latest is about the universality of the Tracy-Widom distribution. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 24 Comments

Quick Links

Posted on October 1, 2014 by woit

This month’s Physics Today has a long article by Wojciech Zurek, Quantum Darwinism, classical reality, and the randomness of quantum jumps. I’m not sure if there’s anything new there, but it’s a very clear exposition of what seems to me … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 48 Comments

Thirtieth Anniversary of the First Superstring Revolution

Posted on September 25, 2014 by woit

Today’s about the date that I’d pick for the 30th anniversary of the First Superstring Revolution. Witten’s paper Some Properties of O(32) Superstrings arrived at the journal Physics Letters on September 28,1984, so presumably was finished and sent out around … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 33 Comments

Horgan Interview With Witten

Posted on September 22, 2014 by woit

Back in 1996 John Horgan’s The End of Science appeared, which included material from a fascinating 1991 interview of Edward Witten. I had mixed feelings when reading this. On the one hand, Horgan was doing something truly remarkable, challenging Witten … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 27 Comments