Monthly Archives: December 2007

End-of-year Links

Posted on December 30, 2007 by woit

Every year around this time the Edge web-site posts responses from a large number of scientists to some particular question. This year the question is “What have you changed your mind about? Why?”, and the results should be posted tomorrow. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 20 Comments

This Week’s Hype

Posted on December 27, 2007 by woit

Over the past year or so, as public awareness has grown that string theory is a failed idea about unification due to its inherent untestability, I’ve been surprised by the way in which many in the string theory community have … Continue reading →

Posted in This Week's Hype | 34 Comments

Money, Money, Money

Posted on December 26, 2007 by woit

Theoretical physics and mathematics are much cheaper to fund than experimental particle physics. I don’t know yet what the implications of the FY 2008 budget are for these fields, but it appears that they are not facing large cuts like … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Disastrous FY 2008 DOE Budget

Posted on December 18, 2007 by woit

The White House and the Congress, several months into the 2008 fiscal year, finally seem to have come to agreement on a budget, one that fully funds the Iraq war, but has a huge cut in the budget for DOE … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 62 Comments

Vogan on the Orbit Method

Posted on December 17, 2007 by woit

David Vogan was visiting Columbia last week, giving the Ritt Lectures, on the topic of Geometry and Representations of Reductive Groups. He has made available the slides from his lectures here. Vogan’s talks concentrated on describing the so-called “orbit method” … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 18 Comments

A Passion for Discovery

Posted on December 16, 2007 by woit

I’ve just finished reading a wonderful new book by theoretical physicist Peter Freund, entitled A Passion for Discovery. Freund grew up in Romania, and began his career as a physicist in Europe during the 1950s, emigrating to the US during … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments

Latest on ILC/CLIC/LHC

Posted on December 14, 2007 by woit

Barry Barish, the director of the ILC project, has a statement here about the recent UK decision to stop funding R and D work on the ILC. He writes that “losing the UK’s contributions to the ILC will have a … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 4 Comments

UK Pulls Out Of ILC

Posted on December 11, 2007 by woit

The UK is planning on cutting the budget of its Science and Technologies Facilities Council over the next few years, ending British involvement in several large scale scientific projects, including the ILC. The STFC document laying out its plans through … Continue reading →

Posted in Experimental HEP News | 31 Comments

Latest Sci-Fi/Fantasy News

Posted on December 11, 2007 by woit

Various particle physics-related science fiction and fantasy news: Discover has an interview with Kip Thorne, who is working with Steven Spielberg on a science fiction film tentatively entitled Interstellar for release in 2009. The plot evidently involves the novel idea … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 28 Comments

News From All Over

Posted on December 4, 2007 by woit

There’s a long and interesting profile of Jim Simons on the Bloomberg web-site. It begins with him being told he has a call from Harvard string theorist Cumrun Vafa. Unclear whether Vafa was calling to talk about something related to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments