03 January 2008

Perimeter Institute For Theoretical Physics

Until today, I hadn't realized how concentrated the luminaries of what might broadly be called the "respectible minority positions" in theoretical physics are at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada.

The have John Moffat, the modified gravity as opposed to dark matter and dark energy guy, they have Leonard Susskind in particle physics and superstring theory (among other things one of the inventors of technicolor theory), and they have Lee Smolin, the guru of quantum gravity.

The place was founded in 1999 by Blackberry gazzillionaire Mike Lazaridis. The place has armies of post-docs.

The joy of theoretical physics is that it is relatively cheap to get a lot of brainpower together because these guys don't need their own billion dollar laboratory instruments.

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