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Scientific Inference
Science isn't absolute. Its truths and discoveries enable us to approximate reality, but we must always remain open-minded to revisions.
2mins
Astrobiologist Betül Kaçar on why the simple act of asking questions (without needing a reason) is one of the most powerful things a human can do.
When it comes to our Universe's origins, scientists discuss the Big Bang, cosmic inflation, and other theories. Why doesn't "God" come up?
Over a century after we first unlocked the secrets of the quantum universe, people find it more puzzling than ever. Can we make sense of it?
The 5th brightest star in our night sky is young, blue, and apparently devoid of massive planets. New JWST observations deepen the mystery.
The structure of our Solar System has been known for centuries. When we finally started finding exoplanets, they surprised everyone.
It’s not a gambit. It’s not fraud. It’s not driven by opinion, prejudice, or bias. It's not unchallengeable. And it's more than facts alone.
Discrepancies between observations and theory regarding subatomic particles called muons may force scientists to rethink the quantum world.
For thousands of years, humanity had no idea how far away the stars were. In the 1600s, Newton, Huygens, and Hooke all claimed to get there.
The study suggests that human ancestors expanded across Europe faster than previously thought.
Recent measurements of CERN data seem to disagree with standard-model predictions about how the Higgs boson decays, though further analysis is needed to confirm the observations.
Sci-fi enthusiasts have long hoped that a substance called antimatter might experience gravity opposite that of ordinary matter. It doesn't.
Some fascinating observations of K2-18b have come along with horrendous, speculative communications. There's no evidence for oceans or life.
An army of replicators belonging to national laboratories, research universities, and amateur garages is rushing to replicate ambient superconductivity in LK-99.
Science news presents a flood of breakthroughs and discoveries that promise to change our lives. They rarely do.
At the turn of the millennium, a physicist fooled the global scientific community with the greatest discovery that never existed.
Lots of people have seen lots of bizarre events and phenomena that defy our conventional experience. But is there a scientific explanation?
Earth is the Solar System's only known inhabited planet. Could Venus, if its phosphine signal is real, be our second world with life?
With a new telescope on the horizon, we reflect on the best pictures of space that came before.
“To be ignorant of causes is to be frustrated in action.” So wrote Francis Bacon, counsel to Queen Elizabeth I of England and key architect of the scientific method. In […]
Both made monumental contributions that were far ahead of their time. It’s hard to believe, but the idea that the Universe was dominated not by normal matter but rather by dark […]
The double-slit experiment, all these years later, still holds the key mystery at the heart of quantum physics. When we divide up matter into the smallest possible chunks that it’s made […]
It’s not a question we know enough to know the answer to, but to dismiss the possibility is scientifically baseless. There’s one question that most of us ask at some […]
The Earth is getting warmer, and humans are the cause. This is why. Let’s play pretend for a moment. Pretend, if you can, that you’ve never heard about the idea of […]
The nightmare scenario of no new particles or interactions at the LHC is coming true. And it might be our own fault. Over at the Large Hadron Collider, protons simultaneously circle […]
Of all the experiments performed and measurements made involving fundamental particles, none has ever violated the Standard Model. Until now. If there’s one thing you can count on physicists for, it’s […]
Every physical theory has constants in it. The gravitational constant is remarkably uncertain. When we first began formulating physical laws, we did so empirically: through experiments. Drop a ball off […]
Not everyone is satisfied with the Big Bang. But every alternative is a disastrous failure. It’s treated as though it’s an unassailable scientific truth: 13.8 billion years ago, the Universe […]
In the search for the youngest planet in the Universe, astronomers may have accidentally stumbled upon something entirely new. Growing up is hard to do in the Universe. In the great […]
At just 3 billion years old, this galaxy should be blue and full of new, young stars. Instead, it’s already out of fuel. What gives? “This new insight may force us […]