This Firm Says It’s 6 Years Away From Making Energy From Fusion

Nuclear fusion is one of the most promising “new” technologies that humanity is currently developing. If we’re able to generate net energy from nuclear fusion, humanity could prosper at levels we can’t even imagine yet. But first, we have to get there. Let’s take a look at a quite recent startup, OpenStar, which claims it will create energy from fusion as early as 6 years from now. They use a reactor design I had never heard of before, and it does have some notable advantages. Could this be the way that fusion finally becomes reality?



If you are still reading this blog in 2024, I wish you a Merry Christmas!

Scientists See Hidden Order in Quantum Chaos: A First

Chaos doesn’t exist in the world of quantum physics, as quantum physics is a linear theory. So how come we observe chaos all around us? Researchers have now come one step closer to understanding how it happens. They have for the first time measured a “quantum scar”, that is a quantum effect which deviates from chaos. Why does this matter and what could it be good for? Let’s take a look.

Science Does Not Work By Consensus – Don’t Poll Us

A group of philosophers and sociologists have come up with the idea to regularly poll scientists in order to establish and maintain a “scientific consensus.” While this might sound plausible, it’s a terrible idea. Here’s why.

The Biggest Physics Stories of 2024

2024 has been quite the wild ride, but now it’s time to take a step back and appreciate how far we’ve come this year. Let’s take a look at the five most important developments in physics in 2024, according to me.



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Neil Degrasse Tyson & The Trans Athlete Issue

Neil DeGrasse Tyson made waves recently by giving his take on transgender athletes and how they should be allowed to participate in sports. The discourse around this tiny issue has become increasingly toxic over the years, meaning it’s time for us to dive in too. Let’s take a look.

Why Musk Is Wrong About Mars

Elon Musk wants to build a colony on Mars with at least 1 million people. While this might sound like an exciting and worthwhile goal, many prominent voices in science are skeptical about it. What does Musk want to do, what are the problems, and why is he facing criticism? Here’s a brief summary.

US Government Tries to Discredit UAP Witnesses, New Allegations Reveal

The U.S. Congress has been investigating UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena), better known as UFOs, since 2022. They’ve grilled Pentagon officials, whistleblowers, and outside experts to discover what the U.S. Department of Defense really knows about UAPs. Let’s take a look at what they found.

No, Google Did Not Prove that Parallel Universes Exist

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String Theory Isn’t Dead

Heard anything of string theory lately? Well, there have been a few developments. Apparently it’s not dead, going by a recent review article. The article also lists all the things that string theorists have learned recently. And they indeed learned something. Let’s take a look.

This Physics Problem Can’t Be Solved

According to physicists, everything in the universe is physics. Chemistry, biology, why you crave cake at 11:00 pm – you name it, it can eventually be explained by physics. But what if some physics problems require calculations that are just impossible? The authors of a new paper claim they’ve found a measurable quantity in a physical system that just can’t be computed. Let’s take a look.

The Thesis that Killed Academia?

This is a brief comment on the recent social media episode in which a young woman attracted a lot of attention by graduating with a thesis on olfactory suppression in English prose. In this video, I try to put these events into context. I find it difficult to wrap my head around the sudden outrage. Let me know what you think about this.

Our Sun Can Make Superflares Once a Century, Scary Study Finds

The largest solar flare on record was the Carrington event from 1859. But astrophysicists now looked at other stars like our own and found that our sun might be able to produce superflares – solar flares that are at least 100 times stronger than even the Carrington event – once a century.

Universe Had Two Big Bangs, Physicists Say

The Big Bang is the first moment our universe existed according to calculations within Einstein’s theory of general relativity. But then what is the “Dark Big Bang” that some physicists are talking about? Does this really solve any problems, or is it just another theory that we’ll never be able to test? Let’s find out.



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Scientists Move Over: AIs Predict Research Results Without Doing Research

Scientific literature is growing rapidly, meaning scientists are increasingly unable to keep up with all of the latest developments in research. AI large language models, though, can read and “digest” information much more quickly than their human counterparts, making them the perfect tools to conduct massive literature reviews. Recent research shows they’re also very accurate at predicting the results of studies that they’ve never read before. Let’s take a look.

What Would Change with a “New Physics” Breakthrough?

“New physics” is a catch-all term for fundamentally new discoveries in physics (such as dark matter, quantum gravity, or a theory of everything) which push the boundaries of how we understand our reality. How could new discoveries in these areas of research affect our lives? Let’s take a look at what knowledge and practical use we could potentially gain.

New Study Deepens Mystery of Life’s Origin

Scientists believe that all life on Earth originated from one single organism, the Last Universal Common Ancestor, LUCA. Now, researchers have uncovered evidence that LUCA was much more complex than previously thought, which is puzzling because it didn’t have a lot of time to evolve. This seems to suggest that life can come into being much faster than we thought. Let’s take a look.

Theory of Everything Predicts New Physics For Supermassive Black Holes

Mathematician Stephen Wolfram has attempted to develop a theory of everything using hypergraphs, which are essentially sets of graphs that can describe space-time. Recently, another mathematician named Jonathan Gorard has used hypergraphs to describe what happens if a black hole accretes matter. He claims that evidence for hypergraphs should be observable in the energy that is emitted during the accretion. Big if true, as they say. Let’s take a look.

Moore’s Law is So Back

According to Moore’s law, the number of transistors on a microchip should double every year. Two years ago, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that the law was “dead” because we're hitting physical limits for the miniaturization of transistors. Now, though, he’s reversed that claim, instead predicting that we're about to see a “Hyper” Moore’s law. Let’s take a look.

Quantum Tech Could Be Used in Warfare, Scientists Warn.

Physics, as history taught us, can be dangerous. As quantum computing continues to progress (slowly), researchers and governments across the world are worried that the technology will be used for evil purposes. Why? And should we really be worried about quantum tech? Let’s take a look.

The Crisis in Cosmology Just Got So Much Worse

In the past decade, astrophysicists have found a lot of evidence that our large-scale theory for how the universe works has some large-scale problems as well. It has, however, remained controversial whether this is a problem with data collection or whether it is indeed a problem with our understanding of the universe. In a new paper, astrophysicists now demonstrate that something is wrong with the theory indeed. It could be the first good evidence that “Einstein was wrong.” Let’s take a look.



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