Category Archives: Multiverse Mania

Various and Sundry

Posted on July 10, 2009 by woit

For the latest on the status of the LHC, see the July 2 talk of Steve Myers mentioned here earlier, and a July 8 talk (slides, video) that has some more recent news. The question of what to do about … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News, Multiverse Mania, Uncategorized | 18 Comments

Templeton Foundation Strategy and Planning

Posted on June 22, 2009 by woit

Most physicists are rather dubious about whether “multiverse” research is deserving of any support since it’s not clear that it is even science. Because of this, such research has been finding financial support in recent years not from conventional sources … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 31 Comments

Manufacturing universes in a fractal multiverse

Posted on June 21, 2009 by woit

I gather that the World Science Festival here in New York a week or so ago was a great success, although I was out of town for most of it. The one part of the program I was dubious about … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 10 Comments

String Universality Reloaded

Posted on June 12, 2009 by woit

I still haven’t figured out yet what the arXiv’s trackback policy is, since trackbacks to my blog entries sometimes appear there, sometimes not. One example in the “not” category is my recent posting about the Kumar-Taylor paper on “String Universality”, … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 17 Comments

String Universality

Posted on June 7, 2009 by woit

There’s a new paper out on the arXiv this evening, advertising a new concept called “string universality”. The authors argue that in six dimensions, by use of appropriate compactifications, any consistent 6d supergravity theory has a string theory realization. They … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 28 Comments

Multiverse News

Posted on June 1, 2009 by woit

Some items from around the multiverse: Srednicki and Hartle have a new preprint on hep-th about Science in a Very Large Universe. Like many other multiverse papers, it doesn’t really have any equations in it, so it’s a bit hard … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 37 Comments

Role Reversal

Posted on May 29, 2009 by woit

It used to be that New Scientist had somewhat of a reputation for publishing misleading articles about speculative physics, and Science News was a more stodgy but reliable publication that stuck to serious physics. Recently there has been a role … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania, This Week's Hype | 2 Comments

The Only Game in Town

Posted on May 1, 2009 by woit

This week’s New Scientist has an article promoting the string theory multiverse, starting off with positive comments from Brian Greene, and continuing with a claim that the majority of physicists now embrace the idea: Greene’s transformation is emblematic of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania, This Week's Hype | 42 Comments

Various News

Posted on April 6, 2009 by woit

The CERN Bulletin has been providing weekly updates about the progress of LHC repairs, with the latest one here. One thing they don’t seem to have mentioned is that it looks like the schedule has recently slipped by nearly a … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News, Multiverse Mania, Uncategorized | 15 Comments

Origin of the World

Posted on April 1, 2009 by woit

Arizona State University’s new Origins Initiative is starting off this year with some mind-expanding programs, including an Origins Symposium that will start tomorrow. The number and quality of speakers who will be making the trip to Tempe is remarkably high. … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 10 Comments