Category: Cosmology
At Forbes: Are we doing theoretical physics all wrong?
| June 18, 2018 | Posted by News under Cosmology, Fine tuning, Intelligent Design, Multiverse, Philosophy |
From astrophysicist Ethan Siegel, reviewing Sabine Hossenfelder’s new book, Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray, at Forbes: The history of physics is filled with great ideas that you’ve heard of, like the Standard Model, the Big Bang, General Relativity, and so on. But it’s also filled with brilliant ideas that you probably haven’t […]
Experimental physicist Rob Sheldon takes issue with News’s globular clusters story
| June 11, 2018 | Posted by News under Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Physics |
Recently, we published a story on a recent research finding that globular clusters may be four billion years younger than previously thought. In a universe that is only a little over 13 billion years old (so far as we know) that seems to some of us like a large room for error. However, Rob Sheldon […]
Older vintages: From New Scientist (1996) on the dubious idea of something from nothing
| June 11, 2018 | Posted by News under Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Media, Science |
From David Darling at New Scientist: But, as far as I am concerned, the fact that the Universe was an incredibly weird place 10-43 seconds after “time zero” is no big deal. What is a big deal—the biggest deal of all—is how you get something out of nothing. Don’t let the cosmologists try to kid you […]
Christian philosopher Robin Collins vs. atheist philosopher Peter Millican on the fine-tuning of the universe for life
| June 9, 2018 | Posted by News under Cosmology, Fine tuning, Intelligent Design |
Yes (Robin Collins) or no ( Peter Millican)? Wintery Knight recalls the 2016 debate and offers a summary: Science has revealed that the fundamental constants and forces of the cosmos appear to be exquisitely fine-tuned to allow a universe in which life can develop. Is God the best explanation of the incredibly improbable odds of […]
Problem solved: There are no laws of physics, says prominent string theorist
| June 6, 2018 | Posted by News under Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Naturalism, Physics |
And Sabine Hossenfelder, author of Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray, can just suck it up. From IAS director Robbert Dijkgraaf at Quanta: Scientists seek a single description of reality. But modern physics allows for many different descriptions, many equivalent to one another, connected through a vast landscape of mathematical possibility. The current Standard […]
Well, physics probably HAS gone off the rails if NBC is reporting it
| June 4, 2018 | Posted by News under Cosmology, Culture, Intelligent Design, Physics |
They used to be a regular stop for news of crackpot cosmology. From Dan Falk at NBC, discussing Sabine Hossenfelder`s new book, Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray (June, 2018): But the new century brought a rough patch. Yes, there have been some remarkable findings, including the 2012 discovery of the Higgs Boson and the discovery […]
Astrophysicist: Evolutionary worldview must answer the question, Where is ET?
| June 3, 2018 | Posted by News under Cosmology, Evolution, Extraterrestrial life, Intelligent Design |
A new book from astrophysicist Milan M. Ćirković, The Great Silence: Science and Philosophy of Fermi’s Paradox: The Great Silence explores the multifaceted problem named after the great Italian physicist Enrico Fermi and his legendary 1950 lunchtime question “Where is everybody?” In many respects, Fermi’s paradox is the richest and the most challenging problem for […]
How string theory can be a theory of everything
| June 3, 2018 | Posted by News under Cosmology, Intelligent Design |
From astrophysicist Ethan Siegel at Forbes, t’s one of the most brilliant, controversial and unproven ideas in all of physics: string theory. At the heart of string theory is the thread of an idea that’s run through physics for centuries, that at some fundamental level, all the different forces, particles, interactions and manifestations of reality […]
Largest particle detector draws a blank on dark matter
| May 29, 2018 | Posted by News under Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Physics |
From Emily Conover at ScienceNews: The largest particle detector of its kind has failed to turn up any hints of dark matter, despite searching for about a year. Known as XENON1T, the experiment is designed to detect elusive dark matter particles, which are thought to make up most of the matter in the cosmos. Physicists […]
At Science: Hawking’s last work attempted to stick a pin in eternal inflation of the cosmos
| May 23, 2018 | Posted by News under Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Multiverse |
In Adrian Cho’s interpretation at Science: When Stephen Hawking died on 14 March, the famed theoretical physicist had a few papers still in the works. Today, the Journal of High Energy Physics published his last work in cosmology—the science of how the universe sprang into being and evolved. (Other papers on black holes are still […]
Does the beginning of the universe require a cause?
| May 22, 2018 | Posted by News under Big Bang, Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Mathematics, Philosophy, Physics |
A philosophical question to wake you up. A reader directs our attention to a 2015 piece by cosmologist Alexander Vilenkin at Inference Review (2015): THE ANSWER to the question, “Did the universe have a beginning?” is, “It probably did.” We have no viable models of an eternal universe. The BGV theorem gives us reason to […]
Can fuzzballs explain away the Big Bang? And the origin of time?
| May 21, 2018 | Posted by News under Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Physics |
From Sophie Hebden at FQXI: A radical theory replaces the cosmic crunchers with fuzzy quantum spheres, potentially solving the black-hole information paradox and explaining away the Big Bang and the origin of time. … If the core of a black hole isn’t confusing enough, things get worse when you consider its surface—or “event horizon”—which marks […]
Astrophysicist as advice columnist: Question, should I study string theory?
| May 18, 2018 | Posted by News under Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Multiverse, Naturalism |
From Sabine Hossenfelder at her blog BackRe(Action), responding to a physics major who has heard from cosmologist Brian Greene that string theory can be a grand theory of everything: Greene states very carefully that superstring theory “has the capacity to embrace” gravity as well as the other known fundamental forces (electromagnetic, weak, and strong). What […]
Are recent dark energy findings a blow for multiverse theory?
| May 18, 2018 | Posted by News under Cosmology, Fine tuning, Intelligent Design, Multiverse, Physics |
Dark energy. From Andrew Masterson at Cosmos: The question of dark energy in one universe does not require others to provide an answer. A hypothetical multiverse seems less likely after modelling by researchers in Australia and the UK threw one of its key assumptions into doubt. Dark energy is supposed to be responsible for the […]
Stars born only 250 million years after the Big Bang?
| May 17, 2018 | Posted by News under Big Bang, Cosmology, Intelligent Design |
The universe is currently estimated to be about 13.8 billion years old. From Laurel Hamer at ScienceNews: That’s earlier than the 550 million years ago suggested in a previous estimate that also measured starlight from the early universe (SN Online: 2/9/2015). But it’s in the same ballpark as observations reported in March (SN: 3/31/18, p. […]
Science at sunset: Dark energy, if it exists, might make a multiverse hospitable to life, if it exists
| May 15, 2018 | Posted by News under Cosmology, Culture, Extraterrestrial life, Intelligent Design, Multiverse, Origin Of Life |
From ScienceDaily: Questions about whether other universes might exist as part of a larger Multiverse, and if they could harbour life, are burning issues in modern cosmology. Now new research led by Durham University, UK, and Australia’s University of Sydney, Western Sydney University and the University of Western Australia, has shown that life could potentially […]
Alternatives to Einstein’s gravity face challenges from evidence
| May 14, 2018 | Posted by News under Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Physics |
From Katia Moskvitch at Quanta: The neutron-star collision was just the beginning. New data in the months since that discovery have made life increasingly difficult for the proponents of many of the modified-gravity theories that remain. Astronomers have analyzed extreme astronomical systems that contain spinning neutron stars, or pulsars, to look for discrepancies between their […]
Carry that teapot carefully. There is consciousness in tableware.
| May 12, 2018 | Posted by News under Cosmology, Intellectual freedom, Intelligent Design, Mind, Naturalism |
From John Ellis at PJ Media: The belief that inanimate objects, like rocks and tableware, contain consciousness is quickly picking up steam among respected philosophers and scientists. … The problem for these “credible philosophers, neuroscientists, and physicists” who take panpsychist seriously is, as Goldhill points out, “The materialist viewpoint states that consciousness is derived entirely […]
Suzan Mazur talks with Fermilab associate Craig Hogan at Oscillations about the current state of the hologram universe
| May 11, 2018 | Posted by News under Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Physics |
And we learn some other things as well. From Suzan Mazur at Oscillations, an interview with Craig James Hogan, affiliated with Fermilab: Suzan Mazur: Thank you. There is criticism that the holographic investigation has been going on for almost 20 years, kicked off by Juan Maldacena and that there’s very little evidence so far, despite […]
Proposed dark matter solution: “Gravity is not a fundamental governance of our universe, but a reaction to the makeup of a given environment.”
| May 9, 2018 | Posted by News under Cosmology, Physics |
From Tyler Krueger at Astronomy: Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity is just over 100 years old, and so far it has predicted the interaction between celestial objects and the space-time field very well. There are a few troublesome spots, however, in which the theory of general relativity doesn’t agree with quantum mechanics. These gaps […]
