Did Steven Weinberg Really Pass Away? Any Confirmed Reports?

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Discussion Overview

The thread discusses the reported death of physicist Steven Weinberg, exploring the validity of various claims and sources regarding this news. Participants share personal reflections on Weinberg's contributions to physics and literature, while seeking confirmation of the reports through various channels.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Meta-discussion

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants mention a tweet from Lawrence Wright claiming Weinberg has passed away, but express uncertainty due to a lack of official news sources.
  • Others confirm the news, referring to Weinberg as a giant in physics and noting the impact of his works, such as "The First Three Minutes."
  • Concerns are raised about the reliability of Wikipedia as a source, with discrepancies noted between different language versions regarding the announcement of his death.
  • Participants inquire about primary sources, with some noting that no official statements have been issued by institutions like the University of Texas or local news outlets.
  • A participant shares that they received an email from a friend confirming Weinberg's death, which was forwarded from the university.
  • Links to various articles and obituaries are shared, including a tribute from the University of Texas and articles from the Austin American-Statesman.
  • Several participants reflect on their personal experiences with Weinberg, including attending his lectures and the influence of his writings on their understanding of physics.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a mix of confirmation and skepticism regarding the news of Weinberg's death. While some assert that he has died based on various sources, others highlight the lack of official confirmation and primary sources, indicating that the discussion remains unresolved.

Contextual Notes

There are limitations in the discussion regarding the verification of claims, reliance on social media for news, and the absence of formal announcements from reputable institutions at the time of the conversation.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to those following news in the physics community, fans of Steven Weinberg's work, and individuals seeking to understand the dynamics of information dissemination in academic circles.

DrChinese
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I saw a tweet from Lawrence Wright that Steven Weinberg passed away. I didn’t see any related news stories. Can anyone confirm?

Not sure where to post this. Obviously he was one of the greatest of a generation.
 
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Physics news on Phys.org
Steven Weinberg has died. Giant of physicist; writer of amazing books.
 
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R.I.P.

I thought "The First Three Minutes" was marvelously informative even though it was out of date when I read it.
 
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Wikipedia is currently no reliable source. The Spanish and Dutch versions say he passed away today (24th) whereas this information hasn't been inserted (yet?) on most other versions.
 
Many professional physicists have posted about this in the twitterverse.

I now see that @Demystifier posted earlier about in the PF Science and Math Textbooks forum.
 
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fresh_42 said:
whereas this information hasn't been inserted (yet?) on most other versions.
Is there a primary source? Anywhere?
 
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Vanadium 50 said:
Is there a primary source? Anywhere?
No. Not even the usual lines ("He passed away on ... after ... ") at the end of the biographies.
 
Vanadium 50 said:
Is there a primary source? Anywhere?
Other than Twitter posts by various physicists, apparently not.

University of Texas and Austin American-Statesman have not issued any statement yet.
 
  • #10
Vanadium 50 said:
Is there a primary source? Anywhere?
The only source I can find is Lawrence Wright. Also the tweets and retweets from other scientists (I just looked at Sean Carrol and John Baez) reference Wright as the source. So I am not sure, but if it's true it is a great loss...
 
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  • #11
I got an email this morning from a friend who was a postdoc under him. It was a forward from the university, confirming his death.
 
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  • #12
fresh_42 said:
https://web2.ph.utexas.edu/~weintech/weinberg.html
Looks like this is the most recent class that he taught:

1627140327864.png


<<snip>>

1627140365354.png
 
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  • #13
berkeman said:
Looks like this is the most recent class that he taught:

The lecture notes for this course were turned into his penultimate book, Lectures on Astropysics. The section on white dwarfs and neutron stars helped me when I had to scramble to prepare an upper-level COVID-related and unexpected overload last fall.

I like the personal aspect of the final paragraph of the Preface,

Scan_20210724 (3).jpg
 
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  • #16
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  • #17
A Conversation with Dr. Steven Weinberg: Becoming Interested in Physics (video posted Nov 17, 2016)
OnRamps (UT Austin)
Weinberg starts at 1m27s.
Steven Weinberg (UT Austin) Lecture 4/27/2021
Mani L. Bhaumik Institute for Theoretical Physics at UCLA
Steven Weinberg in conversation with Andrew Strominger (video posted Apr 5, 2021)
Harvard Science Book Talks and Research Lectures

"A Model of Leptons"
Steven Weinberg
Phys. Rev. Lett. 19, 1264 – Published 20 November 1967
https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.19.1264

https://www.ictp.it/about-ictp/media-centre/news/2017/10/weinberg_story.aspx#close

"Reminiscences of the Standard Model" - Special Colloquium by Steven Weinberg (Streamed live on Oct 17, 2017)
(After a long intro, Weinberg starts at 24m00s.)
The Quantum Theory of Fields Effective or Fundamental? CERN on 2009-07-07 T16:30
Steven Weinberg | On the Development of Effective Field Theory
All Things EFT 1 | Sep 30, 2020
Steven Weinberg - Dreams of a Final Theory ( http://isepp.org , pre-dates the SSC: 1992? ) (video posted Aug 20, 2020)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfKEFUpRop0The Bill Moyers Interview - Steven Weinberg (2nd July 1990) (video posted Aug 12, 2019)
https://youtu.be/H728-2_8ePs

Charlie Rose interview: Steven Weinberg, a Nobel laureate in physics, presents his book,
"Dreams of a Final Theory: The Search for Nature's Final Laws." Thursday 02/11/1993
https://charlierose.com/videos/23531
 
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  • #18
berkeman said:
Looks like this is the most recent class that he taught:
He taught that one up until 2019! Ill attach my syllabus as proof, but he taught it multiple years.
IMG_2957.jpg


Another video for those who like Weinberg is the following video (Also has DeWitt, another great physicist):
 
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  • #19
romsofia said:
He taught that one up until 2019! Ill attach my syllabus as proof, but he taught it multiple years.
Oh, when RLM was still RLM (they renamed it for a good reason). I used to be in Patterson (there were neurobiology labs there, that have since moved across the street). Weinberg and I were often in the same line for coffee on the ground floor of RLM, but I never spoke to him, although I was of course in awe.
 
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  • #21
He was always incredible to listen to. Any time I saw an interview it was an immediate watch!
 
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  • #22
romsofia said:
Another video for those who like Weinberg is the following video (Also has DeWitt, another great physicist):

I had to LOL when I realized he is saying that QM cannot exist in two states at once! :biggrin:
 
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  • #23
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  • #24
George Jones said:
As a grad student in the late 80s, I was lucky enough to attend two talks by Weinberg.
Cool. My college buddy was a postdoc in Weinberg's theory group (working on Kaluza-Klein) in the early 80s.
 
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  • #25
Greg Bernhardt said:
He was always incredible to listen to. Any time I saw an interview it was an immediate watch!
That was how I felt about his books. Though dated, I cherish my copy of "The First Three Minutes"; rendition 6 with many updates including implications of CMBR anisotropies.

I look forward to watching the videos included in this thread.
 

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