At times, the advocacy for string theory begins to sound a bit like a religion. But, in an important sense, it IS a religion. They’re trying to make sense of the universe and eventually, that shades into metaphysics.
Physics
Why (some) physicists think a multiverse exists
As stated by Ethan Siegel, it sounds like nonsense. But Siegel makes it sound like physics, which is certainly a feat.
The reality of “imaginary” numbers — discovery, not invention
Over at YouTube, there is a bit of history of Math, on study of cubic functions — and yes there is as usual, some less than exemplary detail — that led to the “invention” of imaginary numbers: Now of course, I contend that this was discovery not invention (I often don’t buy Veritas Sum’s narrative, Read More…
Is Sarah Salviander going to make a difference in science?
Of herself she says: Astrophysicist. I have a PhD in Astrophysics and worked for many years in academia as a scientific researcher. Though I am currently focused on ministry work, I am still active in astrophysical research. Visit my research page here.
Major cosmological principle — the universe is the same in all directions — is under fire
At Quanta: “The consensus now is that it is a small effect that does not, in the end, cause too much trouble,” Nadathur said. But that 2% could yet prove consequential. Durrer is investigating whether backreaction might help resolve a growing cosmological crisis.
At Mind Matters News: How can the universe have arisen from nothing?
Louise runs through a number of ideas that sound popular in the lunchroom but don’t stand the test of careful thought. Just for example, “one day science will answer the question of why the universe exists.” But that’s not what science does. Generally speaking, science answers “how” questions, not “why” questions.
At Mind Matters News: The central mystery of the universe is time
Great physicists, and filmmakers, have pondered the mystery. Is the arrow of time a way of creating causality in our universe?
Can gravitational waves help account for why there is more matter than antimatter?
“not an electric charge, but some sort of charge”? Okay… At least we are still in the world of hard science here. One thing: They had better trademark the name Q-ball. If their idea takes off, they will be glad they did. Go Q-balls!
FYI: In quantum mechanics, time may flow differently
At Eurekalert: As pointed out by Giulia Rubino, lead-author of the publication, “although time is often treated as a continuously increasing parameter, our study shows that the laws governing its flow in quantum mechanical contexts are much more complex. This may suggest that we need to rethink the way we represent this quantity in all those contexts where quantum laws play a crucial role.”
Sabine Hossenfelder explains why antimatter doesn’t fall up
Hossenfelder: Inside a neutron and proton there aren’t just three quarks. There’s really a soup of particles that holds the quarks together, and some of the particles in the soup are anti-particles. Why don’t those anti-particles annihilate? They do. They are created and annihilate all the time. We therefore call them “virtual particles.” But they still make a substantial contribution to the gravitational mass of neutrons and protons.
At Mind Matters News: Can quantum physics, neuroscience merge as quantum consciousness?
The problem is, if we assume that “the mind is nothing more than the brain,” there may be nothing we can discover about how it works. Gleiser wishes we could prove that that’s wrong but he can’t.
At Mind Matters News: Does science disprove free will? A physicist says no
Apart from simple laws governing neurons, we have no clue what laws the mind follows, though it does show complex nonlinear dynamics.
Rob Sheldon on lowering the standard for detecting gravitational waves
Sheldon: “So to summarize, the absence of triple coincidences is being withheld from the paper, when in fact, it delegitimizes the entire data analysis pipeline. Now we have 4 Gravity wave detectors, and soon one in space. At what point does the lack of a triple coincidence become fatal? What observation can they make that would disprove the existence of gravity waves?”
Note: In media work, we say: It takes three to make a trend.
At Mind Matters News: Philosopher: Panpsychism is not in conflict with physics at all
Remember Egnor ’s Principle: If your hypothesis is that your mind is an illusion, then you do not have a hypothesis. The panpsychists want to have a hypothesis. They want to include consciousness as a real fact in nature while avoiding dualism.
Theoretical physicist Marcelo Gleiser: The “Copernican Principle” isn’t science…
We’ve only begun to point huge telescopes at exoplanets. There are too many unknowns to be sure of our status, he thinks.