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Rob Sheldon

At Scientific American: We did find life on Mars in the ‘70s. Rob Sheldon weighs in

Levin: When the Viking Molecular Analysis Experiment failed to detect organic matter, the essence of life, however, NASA concluded that the LR had found a substance mimicking life, but not life. Inexplicably, over the 43 years since Viking, none of NASA’s subsequent Mars landers has carried a life detection instrument to follow up on these exciting results. Read More ›

Rob Sheldon: Why process philosophy won’t rescue naturalism

"Let me repeat. Physics doesn't change. And even when discussing the changes (like an oscillation), the physics of change doesn't change. Somebody is making a serious category error when the physics of change becomes the change of physics." Read More ›

Are the “redundant” particles of the universe evidence of fine-tuning?

Rob Sheldon: Despite McMaster U. thinking this odd, and believing (hoping?) for a failure of the Standard Model, I see this as a necessary means of storing the information in the hot Big Bang, and demonstrating the ultimate fine-tuning of the cosmos. Read More ›

Rob Sheldon on the renewal of 3.5 billion-year-old life claims

Sheldon: My best guess is that he has found something organically simple such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), if only because 3.5 billion years is a long time for organics to survive, and PAHs are the sort of keratonized (turned into keragen) that is stable. Read More ›

Rob Sheldon responds to Sabine Hossenfelder on the hologram universe

Sheldon: ... it isn't just HEP theory, it is large swathes of all the sciences. They have painted themselves into a sterile, but formerly well-funded "consensus" corner, and are discovering that the younger generation (and the NYT) is quite flippant on their prospects for survival. Read More ›

Rob Sheldon: Don’t give up all ET hope due to recent exoplanet disappointment

Sheldon: … in our own solar system, Saturn is far outside the "Goldilocks Zone" yet it has a moon, Enceladus, that is emitting steam jets filled with hydrocarbons. … The danger of being overly-quantitative is not just the overreliance on models, or the higher risk of failure, but rather the real probability that "certainty" blinds one from observing the actual phenomenon. Read More ›

Rob Sheldon: What that hot new quantum experiment really showed

His view: What this recent paper with a qutrit experiment shows, is that it is possible to do QM communication or QM computing at high volume and high speed. No need to wear headphones. Our view of the universe has not changed. Read More ›

Astrophysicist: Nothingness” may be the answer to our cosmic questions; Rob Sheldon responds

Rob Sheldon: This article illustrates the reason why the scientific method is going extinct, not just in Darwin's circular logic, but also in physics and cosmology. Read More ›