Related papers: Steven Weinberg: A Scientific Life
Global celebration greeted the 2012 discovery at CERN's Large Hadron Collider of a particle that matches the textbook description of the Higgs boson. That achievement validated a remarkable chain of theoretical reasoning that combined the…
One of the most important philosophers in history, the German Friedrich Nietzsche, is almost ignored by physicists. This author who declared the death of God in the 19th century was a science enthusiast, especially in the second period of…
This paper describes my personal appreciation of some of Tini Veltman's great research achievements and how my own research career has followed the pathways he opened. Among the topics where he has been the most influential have been the…
A possibility of existence of ultra-heavy (quasi)stable particles, mechanisms leading to their large life-time, their production in the early universe, and cosmological manifestations are reviewed.
The present paper gives an account for the general mathematical reader of the life and work of Martin Davis. Since two rather comprehensive autobiographical accounts and two long biographical interviews already exist, the present work…
After re-stating why beauty physics is so special and sketching its present status I attempt to map out an itinerary for the next fifteen years. The basic elements are listed for a research program that allows to define and probe the KM…
Despite the spectacular achievements of molecular biology in the second half of the twentieth century and the crucial advances it permitted in cancer research, the fight against cancer has brought some disillusions. It is nowadays more and…
We review, in a historical perspective, developments in physics which led to the emergence of unifying ideas and theories. Some attention is paid to the theoretical programme that started in the second decade of the XXth century and whose…
This article is a multiauthored portrait of Edsger Wybe Dijkstra that consists of testimonials written by several friends, colleagues, and students of his. It provides unique insights into his personality, working style and habits, and his…
Among the geniuses of mankind, Einstein was probably one of those who made more erroneous claims, and often changed his opinion during the years on important scientific subjects. However, it is important to bear in mind that his mistakes…
``No one has ever touched Zeno without refuting him''. We will not refute Zeno in this paper. Instead we review some unexpected encounters of Zeno with modern science. The paper begins with a brief biography of Zeno of Elea followed by his…
The Wigner's Friend thought experiment stands as one of the most intellectually provocative and challenging conceptual puzzles in quantum mechanics. It compels us to confront profound questions concerning the fundamental nature of reality,…
Inspired by the one-hundredth anniversary of the seminal works of Stern and Gerlach, our contribution is a proposal of how to use their famous experiment in a more contemporary perspective. Our main idea is to re-cast the experiment in the…
I present a brief overview of some exciting possibilities for physics Beyond the Standard Model. I include short discussions of neutrino physics, the strong CP problem and axions, GUTs, large and warped extra dimensions, Little Higgs models…
Bruno Pontecorvo was a great physicist who had enormous impact on the development of neutrino physics. His contribution to neutrino physics is briefly reviewed.Some recollections about his personality are also given.
After a very brief review of twentieth century elementary particle physics, prospects for the next century are discussed. First and most important are technological limits of opportunities; next, the future experimental program, and finally…
Albert Einstein's practice in physics and his philosophical positions gradually reoriented themselves from more empiricist towards rationalist viewpoints. This change accompanied his turn towards unified field theory and different…
While I was dealing with a brain injury and finding it difficult to work, two friends (Derek Westen, a friend of the KITP, and Steve Shenker, with whom I was recently collaborating), suggested that a new direction might be good. Steve in…
This talk presents a short review of David Brink's most important achievements and of my own experience working with him.
I briefly summarize the prospects for extending our understanding of physics beyond the standard model within the next five years.