sociology

THE ANT MILL — how theoretical high-energy physics descended into groupthink, tribalism, and mass production of research

I have written a new book about the sociology of hep-th. The field is in crisis: no major breakthrough in 50 years and yet a remarkable absence of conceptually new ideas. This calls for an explanation. Here is a paradox: the research field of hep-th has on the one hand not produced any major breakthrough…Read more THE ANT MILL — how theoretical high-energy physics descended into groupthink, tribalism, and mass production of research

The sociology of theoretical high-energy physics

Together with physicist and data analyst Jarl Sidelmann I have just posted a bibliometrical study of hep-th on the arXiv. In this post I will explain what we did and what we have found. In a new bibliometrical study we show that the levels of competition for survival in theoretical high-energy physics has increased dramatically during…Read more The sociology of theoretical high-energy physics