New Theory of “Cosmological Stasis” Could Explain Dark Matter

Physicists have come up with a new idea for how our universe began, and it could also explain dark matter. They say that if our universe has small extra dimensions, then these can temporarily store energy, causing a “cosmological stasis” in which the universe expands but nothing else happens. Then the stasis ends and dark matter remains. Sounds wild. What are we to make of this?

Atomic Anomaly Confirmed! Evidence for a “dark force”?

In 2020, a group of MIT researchers detected an anomaly in the nuclei of ytterbium atoms. They said that the nuclei’s strange behavior might be indicative of a “dark force” caused by a currently-undiscovered mystery particle that might make up dark matter. In 2020, the anomaly only had a significance of 3 sigma. But now, another group has confirmed it at a whopping 23 sigma! What does that mean for physics? Let’s find out.

Why I took down my climate science video

Just a brief explanation for what happened with last week's climate science video. Sorry for the confusion which, in hindsight, was rather unnecessary.

New Experiment To Look for Quantum Noise of Space Itself

Physicists are stuck on trying to figure out why gravity and quantum mechanics don’t get along. For almost 100 years now, they have been looking for a theory of quantum gravity to solve the problem. But one of the most general expectations of a quantization of gravity is that space also has quantum fluctuations. And a team of researchers from Caltech now says they’ve got a tabletop experiment which could find those fluctuations. Could this solve the problem? Let’s take a look.



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China Discovers 60,000-Year Supply of Thorium

Last week, the media reported that China had discovered 1 million tons of thorium – enough of the nuclear fuel to power the country for 60,000 years. How big is this news really? Let’s take a look.

Will AI Solve Quantum Computing?

If you’ve paid any attention to science news over the past few years, you know that AI and quantum computing are being heralded as the two most important emerging trends in tech. Currently, AI is more useful in real-world scenarios, but two new papers suggest that AI might be used to propel quantum computing development forward. Let’s take a look.

Einstein-Tile Discovered in Nature

Einstein-tiles, discovered in 2023, are shapes that can be used to cover a surface without gaps with a pattern that never repeats. A group of researchers claim they’ve found one of these rare shapes in a group of molecules that spontaneously configured themselves into a surface cover that behaves like an Einstein-tile. Let’s take a look.

What Americans Don't Understand About Europe

I’ve noticed an increasingly negative attitude of US-Americans to Europeans, and the other way round. It makes me sad because I think there’s much to admire in both America and Europe. Today I want to talk a little about what I think is going on, and what we have in common –and what not.

Time Can Run In Two Directions, Physicists Find

Why time passes is one of the biggest mysteries in physics, as the fundamental laws of nature don’t reflect a difference between moving forward and backward in time. In a new paper, researchers have shown that time might actually be able to run in two directions, meaning we might have a twin universe where time runs opposite our universe’s. Let’s take a look.



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Lonely Magnetic Northpoles Could Actually Exist, Physicists Find

Magnets always have two poles. Meaning, if you break a magnet in half, both of those halves will also have two poles. But some physicists think that particles with just one magnetic pole might exist – these theoretical particles are called monopoles. However, up until now, theories have shown that the existence of monopoles would cause a paradox by breaking up indivisible particles. Now, a group of physicists have published a new paper explaining that paradox, and monopoles might be back on the menu. Let’s take a look.

Did Climate Change Actually Make The LA Wildfires Worse?

During the recent wildfires in Los Angeles, the media briefly latched on to a study which apparently blamed climate change for making the blazes more likely to occur and also more intense. But is that really what the study says? Let’s take a look.

Why I think the new quantum gravity theory is wrong

Last year, Jonathan Oppenheim’s theory of post-quantum gravity was the only theory that made it into my Best of 2024 summary. Post-quantum gravity is one of the most interesting theories for merging quantum physics with gravity, which in turn is one of the most important problems in physics. Now, researchers say they’ve come up with a way to test the theory, though technology needs to advance before that test is possible. In this video I explain why I think it’s likely that post-quantum gravity will be falsified.

Microsoft’s Topological Qubits Probably Don’t Exist, Researchers Warn

Two weeks ago, Microsoft made a big splash in the media by claiming that they’d found a way to build a scalable quantum computing platform which could reach one million qubits in a short period of time. They claimed this was possible with the help of a type of topological qubit called Majorana states. But it appears there are several… issues with the company’s published research. I have a quick summary.

I Was Wrong About Geothermal Energy.

In the past, my outlook on geothermal power was… less than optimistic. But times have changed, and geothermal power technology has improved by leaps and bounds in a variety of ways. Today I have a quick update.

Our Universe Has Two Different Sides, Physicists Confirm

Physicists have a lot of questions about our universe. Here’s one more to add to the list: Why is it so asymmetrical? New research has confirmed an anomaly named the Hemispherical Power Asymmetry, which states that the cosmic microwave background has more fluctuations in one side of the universe than the other. The weirdest part about this is that no one even has a theory for why this might be the case.



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Should we defund academia?

In this video I explain why I think that academia will be mostly defunded in the coming decades. In a nutshell it’s because it’s for all practical purposes a planned economy and extremely inefficient. I go through the most common arguments for academia and explain why they all fail.

AI Gets Rapidly Smarter, And Makes Some Of Us Dumber

So much has happened in AI in the past week, it's hard to keep track. Grok-3, Google's AI co-scientist, GPT-5 rumours, and a Microsoft study that says AI is making us stupid -- at least some of us.

Earth’s Magnetic Field has a Hole, and it’s changing

Earth's magnetic field has a hole located over the South Atlantic Ocean. It’s called the South Atlantic Anomaly and according to NASA and the ESA, it’s changing. Could this be a sign that the Earth’s magnetic field is about to flip? I’ve had a look.

No Audible Boom from First Test Flight of Supersonic Passenger Plane

The company Boom Supersonic recently completed the first test flight of the prototype for their supersonic passenger jet. It was the first time since the Concorde flights were discontinued that a civil aeroplane crossed the Mach barrier. According to people who watched the event, no supersonic boom was audible on the ground. Are we close to seeing the return of supersonic passenger flights?

Microsoft Exaggerates Quantum Computing "Breakthrough"

A brief summary of what Microsoft's recent announcement for a topological quantum core, Majorana-1, means -- and doesn't mean.