Category Archives: Uncategorized

Various and Sundry

A couple of mathematics items: Photographer Jessica Wynne has been taking photographs of mathematician’s blackboards, and there’s a story about this in the New York Times. Many of her photographs have been taken here at Columbia, where we happen to … Continue reading

Posted in Swampland, Uncategorized | 19 Comments

Recently Modified Posts

I’ve often added material to recent posts as “updates”, while aware that some who might be interested would likely not realize the added material was there. To improve the situation, I’ve just added a “Recently Modified Posts” widget on the … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Some background on “high energy physics”

There was a workshop last week at the Harvard CMSA, focusing on new ideas about physics rooted in topology. Talks are available on the workshop webpage, and those interested in high energy physics might be most interested in the ones … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments

Where We Are Now

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

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

Against Symmetry

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?

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

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

Various News Items

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

Various

Possibly of interest: Goro Shimura, one of the major figures in twentieth century number theory and arithmetic geometry passed away on May 3 in Princeton at the age of 89. Princeton has an article about his life and work here. … Continue reading

Posted in Obituaries, Uncategorized | 26 Comments