Category Archives: Multiverse Mania

Various and Sundry

Posted on March 5, 2014 by woit

It seems to be too early for April Fool’s day, and yet the arXiv has Dark Matter as a Trigger for Periodic Comet Impacts by Lisa Randall and Matt Reece, a preprint described as “Accepted by Physical Review Letters, 4 … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania, Uncategorized | 25 Comments

More Quick Links

Posted on February 24, 2014 by woit

First, a couple of examples of recent progress in mathematics Terry Tao has some new ideas about the Navier-Stokes equation. See his blog here, a paper here, and a story by Erica Klarreich at Quanta here. I’ve been hoping to … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania, Uncategorized | 9 Comments

The Multiverse, Evidence and Theology

Posted on February 11, 2014 by woit

Yes, this multiverse business is tedious, but since it is becoming mainstream physics, with colloquium talks here at Columbia devoted to it, and the Columbia University Press publishing books about it, seems to me that someone at Columbia should be … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Multiverse Mania | 62 Comments

More Links, Interesting and Tedious

Posted on February 5, 2014 by woit

First some links to interesting things: There’s a fascinating interview with Deligne in the latest AMS Notices. Alexandre Grothendieck: A Mathematical Portrait includes some great expository pieces about the mathematics developed by Grothendieck. There’s also available Grothendieck’s own Esquisse Thématique, … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania, Uncategorized | 44 Comments

The Perfect Wave

Posted on February 4, 2014 by woit

Sometimes when I have come across claims of exotic phenomena at the far-out edge of the field of BSM physics based on branes and string theory (like time travel, or brane-world explanations of the bad OPERA result), my initial reaction … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Multiverse Mania | 23 Comments

Quick Links

Posted on February 1, 2014 by woit

I’ve always thought more philosophers of science should be weighing in on the debate over “falsifiability” and the “demarcation problem” surrounding string theory and the multiverse (i.e. are these really science?). This is a complex and tricky subject that they … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 17 Comments

Our Mathematical Universe

Posted on January 17, 2014 by woit

Max Tegmark has a new book out, entitled Our Mathematical Universe, which is getting a lot of attention. I’ve written a review of the book for the Wall Street Journal, which is now available (although now behind a paywall, if … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Multiverse Mania | 125 Comments

What Scientific Idea is Ready for Retirement?

Posted on January 14, 2014 by woit

Every year John Brockman’s Edge web-site hosts responses to a different question. This year the question was What scientific idea is ready for retirement?. It shouldn’t be too hard to guess what I chose to write about, with results available … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 70 Comments

A Bubble-Universe at Stanford

Posted on December 19, 2013 by woit

Video from last weekend’s Fundamental Physics Prize scientific meeting at Stanford is now available, in unedited form, here. The first video there is a discussion moderated by Yuri Milner, who does a good job of asking Strominger, Polchinski, Green, Schwarz … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 5 Comments

What’s Next?

Posted on December 9, 2013 by woit

Last week’s public lecture at the Institute for Advanced Study by Nati Seiberg is now available online. He was speaking with the title What’s Next? and promoting a story about where particle physics is and where it is going pretty … Continue reading →

Posted in Multiverse Mania | 56 Comments