Yearly Archives: 2005

The Problem of Predictivity

Posted on January 11, 2005 by woit

In recent years, as it has become clear that string theory can never be used to predict anything about the real world, string theorists have reacted to this state of affairs in various often bizarre ways. Tonight there’s a new … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 33 Comments

Complex Structures on the Six-sphere

Posted on January 9, 2005 by woit

A preprint by Andrei Marshakov and Antti Niemi appeared on hep-th this evening making a remarkable claim. According to this preprint, a few weeks before passing away recently at the age of 93, Shiing-Shen Chern completed a preprint entitled “On … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments

What is a Brane?

Posted on January 6, 2005 by woit

Greg Moore has written an article for the latest Notices of the AMS entitled “WHAT IS… a Brane?”. He begins by noting that “The term ‘brane’ has come to mean many things to many people” and one of the difficulties … Continue reading →

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Anderson and Others at the Edge

Posted on January 4, 2005 by woit

Several people wrote in this morning to tell me about Phil Anderson’s comments about string theory that appeared in the New York Times today. These originally come from John Brockman’s “Edge” web-site where he has gathered responses from more than … Continue reading →

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More Science Fiction

Posted on January 2, 2005 by woit

It seems that every week there’s a new book out about branes, M-theory, the multiverse, etc. by someone who doesn’t really seem to understand the difference between science and science fiction. This week’s example is Michio Kaku’s Parallel Worlds: A … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 22 Comments