Strings 2000's Top 10 Bemuse Belfast

David Mermin is entitled to disagree with the list of top 10 questions in fundamental physics (Physics Today, February 2001, page 11), but I think he should at least attribute the list to the physicists who compiled it rather than to the New York Times.

The Strings 2000 conference was hosted by the University of Michigan in July of that year. The organizing committee, which I chaired, invited each participant to supply a question; the best 10 questions were chosen by a panel consisting of David Gross, Edward Witten, and me. More details, including names of the people responsible for the winning questions, may be found on the Web at http://feynman.physics.lsa.umich.edu/strings2000/millennium.html.

Incidentally, the list produced an unexpected reaction in the strife-torn city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. A local artist concluded that, instead of fighting each other, its citizens might better spend their time pondering deep thoughts. He posted plaques of the top 10 questions around the city at bus stops, in pubs, and elsewhere, much to the bemusement of the residents. See http://www.qub.ac.uk/mp/questions/index.html.

Mermin replies:I cited the New York Times because it set me thinking about such lists by characterizing the questions as ones physicists (not just string theorists) would most like to know the answers to. When I submitted the column to Physics Today, they told me about the Web site. Visiting it, I learned that the Times, surprisingly, had got the 10 questions exactly right. Since I had made it clear that the questions originated with string theorists, I saw no reason to cite the Web site too. But visiting it again, I now note the heading "Physics Problems for the Next Millennium." So I was wrong to attribute this overstatement to the Times.

I also visited the Queen's University Web site recommended by Michael Duff and was pleased and surprised to find my own 10 questions listed alongside those of the string theorists. I have not noticed either set posted on the Lexington Avenue Subway, but I have not been down to the city in many months.