At SciAm: Different micro environments in the air dictate the final shape in a way physicists are still trying to understand.
Physics
Rob Sheldon weighs in on the fundamental building blocks of nature – particles, fields, or …
Sheldon: It is curious that the author of this Aeon article has frozen Wheeler at his second stage, neglecting to mention his final conclusion.
Max Planck on the force behind the universe
A friend now writes to remind us that physics great Max Planck had quite immaterial views on the nature of the universe.
At Aeon: To understand fundamental building blocks of nature, one must think beyond physics
In a debate with four other philosophers of physics, Sebens argued that there are no particles, everything is fields.
Sabine Hossenfelder on “quantum hype”
Hossenfelder: First, you cannot transfer information faster than the speed of light with the quantum internet or with any other quantum effect.
Avi Loeb suggests that the design of life might have been a black hole. Michael Egnor responds
Michael Egnor: Both an intelligent designer (assuming we’re talking about God) and a black hole are supernatural, in the sense that they are not objects in the natural world. This may not surprise you about God, but it is also true of black holes.
Fashionable physicist Brian Cox claims that science has ruled out the soul
This is more what spiritual reality is like: A man in his nineties once got a message from beyond this world. It was pure information, not particles.
Closer to Truth: Are there really extra dimensions?
One can’t help wondering what the notion of many additional dimensions is supposed to do. … By now, you probably get the picture. The side door to “Anything we want to believe is true.”
Rob Sheldon on the recent dark matter claims
Those [theories] that haven’t been disproven yet are the ones that are the least lumpy. Let’s just say that the data are consistent with there being no dark matter lumps at all.
Researchers: Less dark matter than thought?
What if there isn’t any? Maybe we are pursing a phantom? Just a thought.
Reality is looming down on supersymmetry
In pop science media, supersymmetry has been one of the ideas that lead to support for a multiverse and all that. So, if it’s in trouble…
Breakthrough in measuring protons does not deliver the hoped-for new physics
Diminishing hope for new physics? That isn’t the triumphant scientism we were told to expect.
Researchers: Black holes are collapsed universes
Robitzski: “It suggests our entire universe might just look like any other tiny black hole bubble to an outside observer.”
There is more than one kind of dark energy?
Paul Sutter: By allowing for multiple quantum fields to generate dark energy, it might be possible for string theory to still be relevant in our universe, as these models may not be stuck in the “swampland.”
A physicist reflects on miracles, surprisingly sympathetically
From a religious perspective, miracles are direct actions by God. They need not involve violations of laws of nature.