tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-229733572026-05-02T11:00:00.138-04:00Sabine Hossenfelder: BackreactionCan we understand the universe? Read my blog to find out what we know, may one day know, and will probably never know.Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.comBlogger2871125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-56006102367454937722026-05-02T11:00:00.001-04:002026-05-02T11:00:00.136-04:00Bacteria could survive trip on asteroid, scientists findThat life might have come to earth traveling through outer space used to be a fringe theory called ‘panspermia’. But in the past decade or so, we have seen an interesting shift in how scientists regard the idea. Let’s take at one new study that might support ‘panspermia,’ as well as other facts that support the theory.
Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-41307443537608492702026-04-30T11:00:00.001-04:002026-04-30T11:00:00.117-04:00The Fermi Paradox Just Got WorseThe Fermi Paradox is the question of why we haven’t been contacted by any extraterrestrial species. In a recent paper, astrophysicists analyzed the paradox by instead examining how civilizations with the ability to send signals through space might develop. Unfortunately for us, their findings are quite bleak – but let’s take a look anyway.
Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-5437407647841183672026-04-28T11:00:00.001-04:002026-04-28T11:00:00.114-04:00A New Anomaly in Particle Physics!
Recently, physicists at CERN announced that they’d re-discovered an anomaly in the way that certain particles (called B mesons) decay. The anomaly has been noted in multiple other analyses over the years, though most recently it had disappeared. It could indicate that there are particles that we still have yet to discover, or that we need to revise the standard model of physics. Or it could meanSabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-12882478654545671132026-04-27T11:00:00.001-04:002026-04-27T11:00:00.112-04:00Human Evolution Can't Keep Up With Modern Life, Scientists SayNatural selection allows animals – including humans – to slowly adapt to their environments over tens of thousands of years. Unfortunately for us humans, we’re quickly changing our environments and lifestyles, building sprawling cities and working at desks for 10 hours a day. According to a new paper, we now have good evidence that humans are no longer fit to live in the world we’ve created. Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-35392070261453004372026-04-25T11:00:00.001-04:002026-04-25T11:00:00.120-04:00The Truth About China’s Green Energy IndustryOver the past few years, China has invested heavily in its renewable energy sector. In 2025, the country built enough energy capacity to power Germany twice over, with the vast majority of that capacity coming from solar and wind power. But while it’s invested in green energy, Beijing has also continued building coal and nuclear power plants – this dichotomy has led to some people hailing China Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-13041011882466527172026-04-23T11:00:00.000-04:002026-04-23T11:00:00.117-04:00Scientists Prove That Virtual Particles Are Actually Real
Virtual particles, depending on who you ask, are either a yet-unsolved quirk of the mathematics that we use to calculate physics, or a type of real particle that’s constantly popping into existence before quickly disappearing. In a recent paper, physicists claim that they’ve done an experiment that proves that virtual particles are, indeed, real things. Let’s take a look.
Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-12037324288468350692026-04-22T11:00:00.001-04:002026-04-22T11:00:00.120-04:00FBI investigates suspicious disappearances of scientists tied to classified research
I looked at the cases of vanishing scientists in the US and have to admit... it's very odd. Here are my thoughts.
Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-4846188915857031422026-04-20T11:00:00.001-04:002026-04-20T11:00:00.118-04:00Mathematician Collapses All Functions to One Weird FormulaMathematical functions are built from operations, which are used to perform the calculations that make science and technology run. But what if we could do away with multiplication, addition, subtraction, and division? That’s what one mathematician has done in a new paper – he claims that everything in mathematics can be done with just one operation, which he’s calling “eml”. Let’s take a look.
Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-41681740186518225082026-04-17T11:00:00.001-04:002026-04-17T11:00:00.115-04:00 This Calculation Could Change The Periodic TableIf it’s been a while since you’ve taken a chemistry class, you’re lucky – over time, the periodic table has been expanding as physicists produce brand-new atomic nuclei. But the thing about these nuclei is they’re extremely short-lived, sticking around for less than a nanosecond. Recently, though, physicists say they’ve figured out a calculation that should help researchers create new nuclei thatSabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-17559331144843831202026-04-15T11:00:00.002-04:002026-04-15T11:00:00.114-04:00This Quantum Tech was likely used to find missing soldier in IranAccording to the New York Post, the U.S. used a “long-range quantum magnetometer” that can “find the electromagnetic fingerprint of a human heartbeat” in its Easter weekend operation to rescue an F-15 weapons systems officer. But does the U.S. actually have the crazy quantum surveillance capabilities that the Post claims it does? Let's find out.
Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-19857436079297401642026-04-14T11:00:00.000-04:002026-04-14T11:37:02.017-04:00The Dark Matter Mystery Just Took a Weird TurnMOND (Modified Newtonian Dynamics) is a theory of gravity that explains the physical phenomena we observe in galaxies with surprising accuracy, but it falls apart when it’s applied to galaxy clusters. The widely accepted dark matter theory, meanwhile, can apply to both. But according to new research by astrophysicists, observational data shows that our universe is full of more dead stars than we Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-68799482443583735452026-04-08T11:00:00.001-04:002026-04-08T11:00:00.113-04:00Quantum Computers Just Got Much More DangerousProgress in quantum computing as an industry has been relatively stagnant for a while now. But over the past few weeks, that’s changed. Multiple groups focused on quantum cryptography (using quantum computers to break previously-unbreakable encryption protocols) published breakthrough papers in their field, raising concerns that quantum computers could break the crypto industry sooner than we Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-44899689106150080762026-04-06T11:00:00.001-04:002026-04-06T11:00:00.125-04:00String theory hasn't failed, it's worse.String theory has changed the foundations of physics profoundly, and I for one am worried about its legacy.
Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-21310297027850812552026-04-05T11:00:00.001-04:002026-04-05T11:00:00.112-04:00We Can Now Simulate a Human Brain, Scientists Show
Over the years, computer scientists have used cutting-edge processors to simulate the brains of increasingly more complex animals. They’ve already simulated worm and fruit fly brains, and are now working on mice. But according to a new paper, they’ve made a breakthrough that might allow them to simulate human brains, which contain 80 billion neurons compared to a fruit fly’s 140,000. Let’s take Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-41216130714260744482026-04-04T11:00:00.001-04:002026-04-04T11:00:00.119-04:00Crazy: Riemann Hypothesis Linked to Black Holes, Physicists FindThe Riemann Hypothesis is an open problem in maths which – if proved correct – would show us a pattern in prime numbers. The zeta function, a central part of the hypothesis, has been linked to quantum mechanics, and recently a group of physicists linked it to gravitational equations associated with black holes. What does this mean, exactly? Let’s take a look.
Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-8534478320552898922026-03-31T11:00:00.001-04:002026-03-31T11:00:00.120-04:00More Evidence for UAPs! Scientists Afraid to Speak OutUFOs are now known as UAPs, which stands for “unidentified anomalous phenomena.” These phenomena are increasingly popping up in headlines as technology advances, but for some reason scientists are still reluctant to research them. Let’s take a look at some recent UAP sightings and why we need to invest more into UAP research.
Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-42449786849158803932026-03-29T11:00:00.001-04:002026-03-29T11:00:00.111-04:00 Evidence for Life In Other Solar Systems? No but yes.The search for life on another planet is one of the most exciting things in astrophysics. As humanity has searched the universe for signs of life, we’ve found a surprising number of clues suggesting that alien life might exist on multiple other planets. Let’s take a look at how this search is developing and what “signs of life” really are.
Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-57151641797588327622026-03-26T12:00:00.001-04:002026-03-26T12:00:00.116-04:00 Real Progress in Wireless Energy TransferRecently, Finnish researchers made waves by announcing progress in the field of wireless energy transfer using a combination of sound waves, laser systems, and electromagnetic radiation. While they haven’t miraculously figured out how to beam energy long distances with perfect efficiency, their research – and other projects in the same field – have made some significant progress in wirelessly Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-63644036511539531212026-03-25T12:00:00.001-04:002026-03-25T12:00:00.123-04:00 Core Law of Physics is Circular, Physicists SayThe Boltzmann brain hypothesis states that, between the Big Bang occurring and a fully-formed brain suddenly popping into existence in space, the brain spontaneously appearing is more probable. In a recent paper, a group of physicists have compared the second law of thermodynamics and the Boltzmann brain hypothesis – after analyzing both, they concluded that both are equally legitimate theories Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-31955989709772617882026-03-24T12:00:00.001-04:002026-03-24T12:00:00.118-04:00• AI Is About to Break Science… Then Save It The current status of academic publishing is miserable, and many people believe that the rise of AI will only make that worse. While they might be right in the short term, I think that in the long run, AI will help science. Let’s take a look.
Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-20959077553894608252026-03-22T12:00:00.001-04:002026-03-22T12:00:00.115-04:00This is how faster than light signalling could workIn this video I explain why I think it’s wrong to believe that the speed of light is an impossible to overcome limit. I am afraid that this is the biggest mistake that physicists are making, that indeed our entire species is making. And it’s all due to physicists’ misunderstanding quantum mechanics.
Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-20520787549687475892026-03-19T12:00:00.001-04:002026-03-19T12:00:00.132-04:00 The North Pole is Moving And We Don’t Know WhyEarth’s magnetic north pole is changing rapidly. First, it’s moving around quickly (for a geological feature, at least). Second, it seems to be slowly weakening over time, and also a growing number of anomalies have been detected in the Earth’s magnetic field. Let’s take a look.
Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-75227530596740209842026-03-17T12:00:00.001-04:002026-03-17T12:00:00.120-04:00 Quantum Physics Comes from Vacuum Energy, Scientists Prove
I have been alerted that the energy industry will soon be revolutionized by new technology to extract energy from the vacuum. If that sounds somewhat far-fetched, in a new paper a group of physicists deliver the maths to back up their claim. The wave-functions of quantum physics are really properties of the vacuum, proving that it is a kind of medium. I had a look at the paper.
Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-67253431518544525912026-03-15T12:00:00.001-04:002026-03-15T12:00:00.120-04:00These Physicists Say They Found The Origin Of RealityOne of the most perplexing questions in the foundations of physics is how our shared sense of reality emerges out of quantum mechanics. This is because in quantum mechanics, it seems, different observers can arrive at different conclusions about what is real and what not. A group of physicists now used an approach called “Quantum Darwinism” to solve this tricky problem. At least they say they Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22973357.post-3187261304525862792026-03-14T12:00:00.001-04:002026-03-14T12:00:00.121-04:00 Breakthrough in Zero Friction MaterialsFriction affects almost everything around us. It makes cars drive, our muscles contract, and even helps us walk. But in terms of technology, friction often means wasted energy — that’s why material scientists are always looking for ways to minimize it. In a recent paper, researchers say that they’ve found a material that can reduce friction to almost zero. Let’s take a look.
Sabine Hossenfelderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06151209308084588985noreply@blogger.com0