"Crackpottery" In Physics?

 Of string theory and other controversies in theoretical physics:


 http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=2720#comments

Peter Woit on Physics

Peter Woit, over at "Big Think," on physics, math, and string theory (from a critical perspective):

http://bigthink.com/peterwoit

Not Exactly, 'What Is the Meaning of Life?'

For the physics geeks out there...

"Is physics deterministic?" and other inquiries from Sean Carroll's list of fundamental physics questions to be addressed over the next century:


http://tinyurl.com/yzweymu

"The Top 10 Unanswered Questions in the Universe"

As formulated by 10 physicists:


http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/archives/09-10/qq-2010-01-02.html

A Little Essay From a Carbon-based Life Form

On the joy of physics and studying the little bit of non-empty space that exists:


http://blogs.uslhc.us/?p=3488

Frank Wilczek Interviewed

NY Times interview with Nobel prize laureate (physics) Frank Wilczek of MIT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/science/29conv.html?_r=1

Quantum Mechanics Redux

Latest book from science writer Jeremy Bernstein, "Quantum Leaps," on quantum mechanics for the lay reader, here:

http://tinyurl.com/y933vtu

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/BERQUA.html

No Backup Plan?

If the Large Hadron Collider DOESN'T find the Higgs Boson, physics will go back to the drawing board:

http://tinyurl.com/yafhpqc

"a hundred years of scientific theory" and "the Standard Model" will be "undermined" if the LHC fails to confirm the Higgs, resulting in bitterness and infighting among the physics community, according to former Harvard professor Shahriar Afshar.

Powers of 10

Jennifer Ouellette's latest on the cosmos here:
http://news.discovery.com/space/oh-what-a-cosmic-web-we-weave.html

Physics Wannabes Take Note

Finally a physics book for the rest of us:

http://tinyurl.com/yaekbg2

....arf, arff

Intro to "Chaos" and More

From SEED Magazine, "Chaos" theory as applied to the quantum level:


http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/the_question_of_quantum_chaos/

A Wild Rumor... or Not

Has dark matter been discovered...? :

http://resonaances.blogspot.com/2009/12/dark-matter-discovered.html


(I'm guessin' not, but we'll know more come December 18th.)

Paradox of Light

 The strange nature of light:

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/1113/3

Garrett Lisi Speculates

 Yo Man, surfer dude proposes 'theory of everything' (the Holy Grail of physics):

http://tinyurl.com/kunu3b

Coooooooooool!!

I've used this TED talk of Lisi's earlier in the year :



Wish I understood it well enough to comment... but I don't, except that the mathematics are intriguing.

Long Ago and Far Away...

The oldest explosion yet detected in the Universe (~13 billion years ago) reported on here:

http://tinyurl.com/yj9vyrc

Astrophysicist Bing Zhang (...gotta love that name :-)) writes in Nature about the finding.
Next year the Hubble telescope will be used to look for the galaxy from which the star explosion emanated.

Physicists Pondering

From the recent "Quantum To Cosmos" conference this nice summary of things buggin' current day physicists (from fundamental laws, to the singularity, to the nature of reality...):

http://tinyurl.com/yjjup7j

Video here: http://www.q2cfestival.com/play.php?lecture_id=7976

Steven Weinberg Via Peter Woit

A little physics/cosmology... and string theory commentary from Peter Woit (and Steven Weinberg) HERE.

Einstein Elaborated

Think E = mc^2.... think again:

http://www.scientificblogging.com/hammock_physicist/whats_wrong_emc2