Signals from across the universe point toward a fascinating possibility.
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Some constants, like the speed of light, exist with no underlying explanation. How many “fundamental constants” does our Universe require?
The information we have in the Universe is finite and limited, but our curiosity and wonder is forever insatiable. And always will be.
Does it have a deeper significance — or is it just a number?
Two of the answers add a dimension to physics that doesn’t belong there. Maybe we could call it “astrotheology.”
Measurements of the acceleration of the universe don’t agree, stumping physicists working to understand the cosmic past and future. A new proposal seeks to better align these estimates — and is likely testable.
A cute mathematical trick can “rescale” the Universe so that it isn’t actually expanding. But can that “trick” survive all our cosmic tests?
The original principle of relativity, proposed by Galileo way back in the early 1600s, remains true in its unchanged form even today.
The Universe is expanding, and the Hubble constant tells us how fast. But how can it be a constant if the expansion is accelerating?
For many years, cosmologists have claimed the Universe is 13.8 billion years old. A new paper says no, it’s 26.7 billion. How do we decide?
Holograms preserve all of an object’s 3D information, but on a 2D surface. Could the holographic Universe idea lead us to higher dimensions?
Perhaps the most remarkable fact about the Universe is simply that it, and everything in it, exists. But what’s the reason why?
For nearly 25 years, we thought we knew how the Universe would end. Now, new measurements point to a profoundly different conclusion.
We need a hypothesis that accounts for both the fine-tuning of physics for life but also the arbitrariness and gratuitous suffering we find in the world.
For some reason, when we talk about the age of stars, galaxies, and the Universe, we use “years” to measure time. Can we do better?
When Einstein gave General Relativity to the world, he included an extraneous cosmological constant. How did his ‘biggest blunder’ occur?
Not even Einstein immediately knew the power of the equations he gave us.
The mass that gravitates and the mass that resists motion are, somehow, the same mass. But even Einstein didn’t know why this is so.
Is gravity weaker over distances of billions of light-years?
Dark energy is one of the biggest mysteries in all the Universe. Is there any way to avoid “having to live with it?”
Our thermodynamic arrow of time explains why the entropy of any isolated system always increases. But it can’t explain what we perceive.
Millennia ago, philosophers like Anaximander grasped that nature is the ultimate recycler.
The expanding Universe, in many ways, is the ultimate out-of-equilibrium system. After enough time passes, will we eventually get there?
The conservation of energy is one of the most fundamental laws governing our reality. But in the expanding Universe, that’s just not true.
Michael Faraday’s 1834 law of induction was the key experiment behind the eventual discovery of relativity. Einstein admitted it himself.
The “first cause” problem may forever remain unsolved, as it doesn’t fit with the way we do science.
Analog could serve as “always-on” computing, while digital is turned on only when necessary.
There is no such thing as a void in the Universe.
Your sexual education was probably inadequate. Here’s the information you always needed.
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In logic, ‘reductio ad absurdum’ shows how flawed arguments fall apart. Our absurd Universe, however, often defies our intuitive reasoning.