Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community
Category

Physics

Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 15, 2021
Categorized
Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Physics
Tagged
, ,

At Forbes: Could dark energy be a misinterpretation of the data?

Denyse O'Leary
August 15, 2021
Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Physics
Siegel: In the near future, observatories like the ESA’s Euclid, the NSF’s Vera Rubin Observatory, and NASA’s Nancy Roman Observatory will improve that uncertainty so that if dark energy departs from a constant by as little as ~1-2%, we’ll be able to detect it. If it strengthens or weakens over time, or varies in different directions, it would be a revolutionary new indicator that dark energy is even more exotic than we currently think. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 13, 2021
Categorized
Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Physics
Tagged
, ,

CERN: New exotic particle, tetraquark, discovered

Denyse O'Leary
August 13, 2021
Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Physics
CERN: The new particle contains two charm quarks and an up and a down antiquark. Several tetraquarks have been discovered in recent years (including one with two charm quarks and two charm antiquarks), but this is the first one that contains two charm quarks, without charm antiquarks to balance them. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 23, 2021
Categorized
Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Physics
Tagged
, ,

Is “string theory world” in some trouble?

Denyse O'Leary
July 23, 2021
Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Physics
Some of us think string theory only existed in order to give a bizarre twist to the fine-tuning of our universe and to create a basis for believing that there is an uncountable infinity of universes out there instead. Apart from that, it may be hard to see much point. We shall see. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 20, 2021
Categorized
Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Physics
Tagged
, ,

Is there an alternative to dark matter?

Denyse O'Leary
July 20, 2021
Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Physics
Merritt: The most successful competitor is called modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND). Observations that are explained under the Standard Model by invoking dark matter are explained under MOND by postulating a modification to the theory of gravity. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 22, 2021
Categorized
Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Physics
Tagged
,

Celebrity physicists are in a row over, literally, nothing

Denyse O'Leary
June 22, 2021
Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Physics
Epperson: Quantum mechanics is a physical theory, operative only in a physical universe. To contort it into service as a cosmological engine that generates the physical universe from “nothing” requires that the abstract concept of “nothing” be concretized as physical so that the mechanics of quantum mechanics can function. What’s more, if quantum mechanics is functional enough to generate the universe from nothing, then it’s not really nothing; it’s nothing plus quantum mechanics. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 28, 2021
Categorized
Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Physics
Tagged
, ,

A unified theory of physics is within reach?

Denyse O'Leary
May 28, 2021
Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Physics
"It didn’t have to be this way. The charges of the elementary particles in our Universe could have been such that there was no way to unify any two or more of them into a single unified particle. It’s the combination of observational data and mathematics that offers us strong hints that the charges for elementary particles in the standard model aren’t arbitrary, but rather arise by virtue of being embedded into a grand unified theory framework." But isn't that an argument for God? Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 24, 2021
Categorized
Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Physics
Tagged
, , , , ,

Columbia University mathematician Peter Woit offers a shrewd assessment of Stephen Hawking and pop physics

Denyse O'Leary
May 24, 2021
Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Physics
Hawking was looking for a unified theory and Woit thinks the idea is pretty much discredited now: "We now live in an environment where the idea that there may be a deeper, more unified theory has become completely discredited, through the efforts of many, with Hawking playing an unfortunate part." Read More ›