Trump and Musk Attack Academia

Donald Trump and Elon Musk are in full control of the U.S. government, and they’re using that power to attack “woke” DEI programs and slash federal funding for academic research. Let’s take a look at how those cuts have played out and how they could affect scientific research going forward.

What’s Behind the Nuclear Fusion Startup Backed by Sam Altman?

AI will require lots of energy. So it makes sense that AI supporters would invest millions of dollars into nuclear fusion, the holy grail of clean energy. One fusion startup in particular, Helion Energy, has garnered lots of support – and $1 billion in funding. What’s so special about them? I’ve had a look.

I was asked to keep this confidential

I want to read you an email that I was asked to keep confidential because I think it explains some of my worries about academia.

This New Idea Could Explain the Laws of Nature

Most physicists believe that our universe began with a Big Bang. But how did the laws of nature – for example, the strength of gravity, the speed of light, and the strength of electromagnetic interaction – come to be the way they are? A group of physicists have just put forth an interesting hypothesis on that question in a new paper. Let’s take a look.

A Big Nuclear Bomb Could Fix Climate Change, Physicist Says

A physicist suggests that we fix climate change with a 50 Gigaton nuclear bomb. This isn’t a joke. And I think it might actually work. A brief summary of this and other improbable physics fixes.

AI makes great progress at taking over the world

The release of DeepSeek’s R1 model has thrown the world of AI into chaos, with US firms dropping their safety guardrails in order to keep up, and there have been a couple other concerning stories across the industry, such as the finding that AIs can fake alignment and that we might be headed for a “gradual disempowerment” Let’s take a look.

Good news for faster-than-light travel. Bad news for time travel.

Time travel is cool science fiction tech, but it seems to directly contradict our current understanding of physics. But what about, instead of moving a whole person back in time, we try to move just a bunch of quantum particles? That’s the focus of a new paper, which came to an interesting (but also not interesting) conclusion. Let’s take a look.

Everyone Is Giving Up On Climate Goals

With the Trump administration fully in control of the U.S., it appears that the tides are changing in the climate change discussion. The White House has already withdrawn from the Paris climate agreement, Trump wants to end what he’s calling “the green new scam,” and corporations around the world are abandoning their carbon neutrality pledges. How will this affect the climate change situation? Let’s take a look.

Could this help us calculate the entire universe?

Physicists think that our universe started out as just a lot of quantum fluctuations. That means, if you’re able to calculate wave-function of those quantum fluctuations, you can learn how the universe ended up the way it is now. In a pre-print, a group of physicists around Nima Arkani-Hamed say they’ve worked out a new powerful method to calculate the wave function of the early universe, and they’re calling it the “cosmohedra.” Let’s take a look.



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A new theory of everything based on tensors?

I got a lot of questions about a new theory of everything that supposedly explains dark energy and quantum physics by way of the "Alena Tensor". I had a look. It's not the worst idea I have had on my desk recently.

Sam Altman Thinks We Need To Change Our Social Contract

Recently, social media has been circulating a clip of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman discussing the idea that we will need to reconfigure society as we continue to improve AI. Is that true? What does it even mean? And how will the emergence of a truly intelligent AI reshape our society? Let’s take a look.

This startup wants to build a conscious quantum computer

A new startup in Canada wants to build the first “conscious” artificial intelligence using quantum computing. What’s their definition of consciousness? Well, it’s based on Roger Penrose’s ideas about consciousness, ORCH-OR. I find this rather confusing because Penrose thinks that consciousness is not computable, so how are we now going to compute it?



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Countries sign up for human vaccines against bird flu. Have we learned the COVID lesson?

American viewers might have noticed the price of eggs going up (again), despite Trump’s promises to bring it down. That’s because the bird flu is spreading through America’s animals like wildfire. But should we be worried about a human pandemic? Let’s take a look.

Did DeepSeek burst the AI bubble or will the Stargate Project make it worse?

Today I have a brief recap of the Stargate Project, recently announced by the Trump administration and OpenAI, the DeepSeek r1 and Janus Pro releases, what experts have said about it, and why I am reasonably confident that this isn't the end of the AI Bubble yet.

Is String Theory Inevitable?

Last month, physicists published a paper claiming that string theory’s Veneziano amplitude is the only way to complete a quantum theory of gravity. The popular science pressed took that to ask whether string theory is inevitable. What is this all about? I've had a look.

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AI Super Agents are coming. Allegedly. What does this mean?

OpenAI recently released a research preview of their first AI agent “Operator”. But that’s not all. Apparently, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is set to meet with White House officials on January 30 in order to discuss something called an “AI PhD-level super agent.” I have no idea what this is, but I have some speculations.

A New Ice Age For Europe Is Becoming More Likely

As humanity appears all too happy to keep warming up the planet, the consequences of our actions are catching up with us. Recent measurements indicate that climate change appears to negatively affect the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). This ocean current transports warm waters from the equator towards the Earth’s poles. If the AMOC collapses, middle and northern Europe might be in for a new ice age as temperatures could dip by up to 10 degrees Celsius on average. But it’s not just a problem for Europe, it would be a global disaster. Let’s take a look.

What is “gravitic propulsion” and could the US government hide it?

The Cybertruck bomber’s mention of a “gravitic device” ignited rumours that the U.S. government might be trying to hide developments in physics, similar to what it did when the country was developing the nuclear bomb. Would that even be possible? Here’s what I think.

Physicists Claim They Solved a Big Problem in Quantum Physics

A group of physicists has claimed that a key motivation for the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is unnecessary. They seem to think that the many worlds interpretation is necessary for conservation laws (energy, momentum, angular momentum) to be fulfilled. This is all nonsense, but quantum mechanics does indeed have a problem with conservation laws. Let me explain.

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What Everyone Gets Wrong about AI

Most politicians totally misunderstand the trouble that artificial intelligence is going to bring. This isn’t a race for profit, it’s a race for power. And that power will be in the hands of a few very rich people. Does that sound like a good future?