Sunday, December 22, 2024
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.
Saturday, December 21, 2024
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.
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
You can now also create your own quizzes on my platform from text input using GPT.
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
You can now also create your own quizzes on my platform from text input using GPT.
Thursday, December 19, 2024
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.
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
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.
Tuesday, December 17, 2024
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.
Monday, December 16, 2024
No, Google Did Not Prove that Parallel Universes Exist
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Sunday, December 15, 2024
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.
Saturday, December 14, 2024
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.
Friday, December 13, 2024
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.
Thursday, December 12, 2024
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.
Wednesday, December 11, 2024
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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You can also use AI to create your own quizzes on my website. We are currently working on support for other languages and automatically downloading YouTube captions.
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
You can also use AI to create your own quizzes on my website. We are currently working on support for other languages and automatically downloading YouTube captions.
Tuesday, December 10, 2024
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.
Sunday, December 08, 2024
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.
Saturday, December 07, 2024
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.
Thursday, December 05, 2024
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.
Wednesday, December 04, 2024
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.
Tuesday, December 03, 2024
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.
Sunday, December 01, 2024
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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This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
You can now also create your own quizzes on my website!
Saturday, November 30, 2024
Is the Universe Infinite or Finite?
Is the universe really infinite? Or could it close back on itself like a sphere? If it’s infinite, how can it expand? And is it true that there might be copies of you in it? Today I want to explain how much we know about those questions and what the expansion of space has to do with Hilbert's Hotel.
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You can now also create your own quizzes on my website!
You can now also create your own quizzes on my website!
Thursday, November 28, 2024
Huge Physics Anomaly Finally Put to Test, But That Just Makes it More Confusing
Ten years ago, physicists discovered an anomaly that was dubbed the “ATOMKI anomaly”. The decays of certain atomic nuclei disagreed with our current understanding of physics. Particle physicists assigned the anomaly to a new particle, X17, often described as a fifth force. The anomaly was now tested by a follow-up experiment, but this is only the latest twist in a rather confusing story.
Wednesday, November 27, 2024
We’ve Been Searching For Aliens All Wrong, Researchers Say (and they have a point)
Civilizations need energy to expand. You’ve probably heard of the Kardashev scale, which classifies civilizations based on their ability to generate and use energy (if you’re interested, humans are barely on the scale). A new paper has shaken up that scale by putting forth new ways that advanced civilizations could harvest energy, including “eating” stars. Let’s take a look.
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
AI Could Soon Make Quantum Computing Obsolete, Nobel Prize Winner Says
Last week, DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis said that AI might be able to solve problems that quantum computers were supposedly necessary for. Indeed he said that classical systems – AI run on conventional computers – can model quantum systems. Sounds like an innocent claim but is certain to upset a lot of quantum computing researchers. Hassabis bases his argument on the surprising success of Alphafold.
Sunday, November 24, 2024
We are unlikely to be in this universe, new study finds. Multiverse falsified?
According to the multiverse theory, we are likely to find ourselves in a universe particularly suited to the emergence of life. According to a new paper, though, that’s not the case given how it’s expanded over time. But does that mean the multiverse theory has also been invalidated? Let’s take a look.
Saturday, November 23, 2024
Why Physicists Changed Their Mind about Dark Matter Particles
Axions were introduced to the world of physics in the 1970’s, when researchers believed they might be the particles that make up dark matter. While early conceptions about axions have since been proven wrong, the particles are now making a comeback as the best motivated candidates for dark matter. Let’s find out why.
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You can now also create your own quizzes on my website using AI.
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
You can now also create your own quizzes on my website using AI.
Thursday, November 21, 2024
Webb Falsified Dark Matter Prediction – And No One Cares
Data collected by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is in conflict with predictions based on the hypothesis of dark matter and instead confirmed predictions made with Modified Newtonian Dynamics, MOND. While the failure of dark matter has been widely discussed as galaxies that are “too big” or “too old”, little has been said about the success of MOND. In a paper that just appeared, we have an excellent summary of the present situation, and it doesn’t look good for dark matter at all.
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Storytelling Beats Facts in Social Media Mental Health Battle
The idea that social media causes children mental health distress is plausible, but unfortunately it isn’t true. Trouble is, if you read what the press has written about it, you wouldn’t know. Scientists have described it as a “moral panic” that isn’t backed by data, which has been promoted most prominently by one man: Jonathan Haidt.
Monday, November 18, 2024
New Calculation Finds we are close to the Kessler Syndrome
The Kessler syndrome is a scenario where, if too many collisions occur between pieces of space debris, low earth orbit will become filled with clouds of tiny particles. All those particles floating around the planet will then make the area unusable for spacecraft and satellites. According to a new study, that scenario might unfold sooner than you’d think. Let’s take a look.
Sunday, November 17, 2024
AI Scaling Hits the Wall, Rumours Say. How Serious is it?
In the past few days we have seen a lot of rumours about troubles with AI scaling. In this video, I have a brief summary of recent events, who said what, and why I don't think AI will solve all of physics.
Saturday, November 16, 2024
Science is in trouble and it worries me.
Innovation is slowing, research productivity is declining, scientific work is becoming more disruptive. In this video I summarize what we know about the problem and what possible causes have been proposed. I also explain why this matters so much to me.
Friday, November 15, 2024
“New Evidence” That CO2 Doesn’t Cause Global Warming? I Don’t Think So.
Many viewers have asked for a review of a recent study which supposedly shows “new evidence” in the climate change “debate.” More specifically, the study’s authors claim that we need to conduct more research into whether or not carbon dioxide emissions really affect climate change. I’ve had a look.
Thursday, November 14, 2024
This New Energy Storage Idea Makes A Lot Of Sense
As we look to transition to our electric future, researchers are still stumped about how to store the electricity generated by inconsistent renewable power sources like solar and wind. In a new paper, scientists have displayed progress in storing energy by shifting the shapes of molecules, a solution that could be directly combined with photovoltaics. This idea makes a lot of sense — at least to me. Let’s take a look.
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
Dark Energy Might Be Black Holes
Recently, some astrophysicists have claimed that black holes are the source of dark energy, a force that speeds up the expansion of our universe. The idea fits well together with observations that seem to show that dark energy is getting weaker. How does this work? Let’s have a look.
Sunday, November 10, 2024
Why Our Dreams of a Final Theory Might Remain Dreams
For decades, scientists have been looking for a theory of everything, which can combine Einstein’s theories with the standard model while also explaining all masses and interactions within the standard model. In this video I explain why I have become convinced that such a theory does not exist.
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
Saturday, November 09, 2024
Self-Censorship is Rising, And It’s a Problem
According to multiple new surveys, many people – including scientists – censor their personal views in fear that their reputations will be damaged or that they will be harassed. Most worryingly, scientists admit to self-censorship even in academic publications. Let’s take a look at this trend and why it’s happening.
Friday, November 08, 2024
My problem with the black hole information loss problem
This is a response to some comments on my recent video about the black hole information loss problem.
Thursday, November 07, 2024
Space-Filling Aether Theory Makes Comeback
In the 19th century, scientists came up with the idea of the “aether,” a medium that filled all of space and allowed forces to travel from one place to another. While this was famously proved wrong by the Michelson-Morley experiment, the idea of the aether made a comeback. The new aether is compatible with Einstein’s theories and could explain dark energy and maybe even dark matter.
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
You can now also create your own quizzes on our website. We have a GPT link that lets you generate questions automatically.
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
You can now also create your own quizzes on our website. We have a GPT link that lets you generate questions automatically.
Wednesday, November 06, 2024
The Problem with Flying Cars
For years, startups have been developing eVTOL (electric vertical take-off & landing) aircraft. The idea is that these vehicles could one day act as electric-powered flying cars or aerial taxis, helping people take short-haul flights without the need for fossil fuels. But despite roughly 15 years of development and billions of dollars of investment, there are no flying vehicles buzzing overhead in cities anywhere. Let’s take a look at why.
Tuesday, November 05, 2024
Scientists Discover a Law of Natural Laws
People often talk about mathematics as a sort of language. Languages are known to have near-universal regularities, which brings up the question of whether the mathematics that we use in physics has similar features. According to a new study which just appeared, this is indeed the case: The maths of natural laws has a hidden law itself — but it’s not the same law that governs other languages. What might this mean? Let’s take a look.
Monday, November 04, 2024
The crisis in physics is real: Science is failing
In which I apologize that my videos sometimes lack nuance and explain why I think we are witnessing the failure of science.
Sunday, November 03, 2024
Did the Black Hole Information Paradox just Disappear?
Do black holes destroy information? Physicists have been trying to answer that question for decades, because the idea that black holes could irreversibly destroy information is incompatible with the principles of quantum physics. Now, researchers claim that some information actually can escape black holes, so there was never a problem to begin with. Let’s take a look.
Saturday, November 02, 2024
Democracy is having a hard time
Since the Jan 6 attack on the US Capitol in 2021, some Americans have increasingly insisted that their country is not a democracy, but a republic. What’s the difference? Why is democracy having such a hard time at the moment and would randomly picking members of parliament help?
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
Thursday, October 31, 2024
The Amplituhedron: Why Space-Time Is Not Doomed
Scientific magazines and websites have been raising quite the hubbub about the Amplituhedron, a geometric structure that can be used to simplify calculations in particle physics. They claim that its existence means “space-time is doomed,” or some other nonsense along those lines. Today I will (try to) explain what all this is about.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Small Nuclear Reactors Have A Big Problem
Small modular nuclear reactors are supposed to fix the problem of conventional nuclear reactors being too expensive and time-consuming to build. But we’ve been hearing about how promising they are for 15 years now. So where are they? A report that just appeared sheds light on what happened.
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
This new “AI Scientist” can “fully automate discovery”, researchers claim
AI has already replaced writers, software developers, customer service agents, and more. Now it’s coming for science. In two new papers, researchers present AI agents that can do the entire job of a scientist – from hypothesis formulation, to literature research, data collection and analysis, all the way to writing a paper.
Sunday, October 27, 2024
A New Pattern in Nature
Mathematicians are obsessed with patterns. They've been obsessed for so long you'd think they've got it figured all out. But just recently they discovered a new type of pattern that is everywhere in nature. Once you have seen it, you can't help but notice that it's really everywhere.
Saturday, October 26, 2024
“Neutral Science is Undesirable” Climate Scientists Argue
Climate scientists on social media are constantly pushing the idea that their research demands action. On one hand, climate change is a very real and pressing issue. But should climate scientists be mixing their research with activism?
Thursday, October 24, 2024
This Theory of Everything Could Actually Work: Wolfram’s Hypergraphs
Mathematician and Computer Scientist Stephen Wolfram wants to do no less than revolutionising physics. He wants to do it with computer code that gives rise to all the fundamental laws of nature that we know and like -- and maybe more. Unfortunately, Einstein’s theories of general relativity inherently clash with how computers work. And yet, he and his team might have found a clever way around this problem.
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
AI Can’t Reason. Should It Drive Cars?
If you’ve paid any attention to current AI models like ChatGPT, you know that they... have problems. But they have already acquired emergent abilities, and some researchers think that the current AIs will also learn to use logic and reasoning. In a new paper now, researchers say that this is unlikely. Let’s take a look.
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Tiny Black Holes Might Have Left Holes in… Everything
That dark matter is made of black holes is an old idea that never worked well and yet never went entirely away. In a new paper, physicists have now proposed that microscopic black holes, even if not enough to make up dark matter, could leave holds in everything, including us. Let’s take a look.
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
Sunday, October 20, 2024
New Alien Signal Rumour -- What's Behind It?
In the past week, we have seen several headlines claiming that an announcement is coming up that the SETI institute has found signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life. I've had a look at what we know about the rumours.
Saturday, October 19, 2024
Most Age Records are Pension Fraud, Scientist Says
According to a new (not yet peer reviewed) study, there’s a strangely strong correlation between longevity and living in areas with low income levels and high crime rates. Are people who claim they’re over 110 years old really that old? Let’s take a look.
Thursday, October 17, 2024
The Quantum Computing Collapse Has Begun
A year ago, I predicted that quantum computing would not have a good 2024. The year is almost over, so let’s take a look at developments in the world of quantum computing, which has been a wild mix of good and bad news, including IBM’s revised quantum roadmap, Google’s error correction progress, and the fate of other quantum computing firms.
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
New Theory: Is the Universe a Bubble? I had a look
I recently saw a new paper that claims our observations could be better explained if the universe was surrounded by a shell. According to the author, that could do away with dark energy and alleviate the Hubble tension. I had a look at the paper.
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Scam or Breakthrough? Energy Saving with Electron Spins
Holcomb Energy Systems says they’re working on a new invention that’s “The Future of Energy on Planet Earth.” The invention supposedly saves massive amounts of energy by harnessing the power of electron spins in electrical steel. Too good to be true? Probably. Let’s take a look.
Sunday, October 13, 2024
A Watched Quantum State Doesn’t Change. Really?
The quantum Zeno effect is that, if you observe a quantum state it won’t change. Is this a real effect? What does it mean and when does it apply? I have answers.
Saturday, October 12, 2024
Surprise Comeback: Dark Energy Could Be Holographic After All
Dark energy is (probably) real, but physicists still don’t know what it’s made of or how to interact with it. One idea that solves this problem is that dark matter isn’t made of anything, but is a consequence of the universe being holographic. While that idea has been floating around since the ‘90s, it's had a few problems. Now a pair of physicists claim to have solved that problem.
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
Thursday, October 10, 2024
I Didn’t Believe In AI Coding. I Was Right.
With the rise of AI, we’ve been told that the technology can be used to help software engineers code more efficiently. We have heard plenty of warnings that AI might even take their jobs. But a bunch of studies now show that AI doesn't help software development as much as promised -- at least for now. Let’s take a look.
Wednesday, October 09, 2024
These recent scientific fraud cases worry me a lot
I’ve talked a lot about scientific fraud in the past. Now, investigations have found even more widespread examples of falsified research. Not just in psychology and medicine, but also in material science. Let’s take a look.
Tuesday, October 08, 2024
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics Did Not Go To Physics -- This physicist is very surprised
A quick comment on the 2024 Nobel Prize in physics which was awarded for the basis of neural networks and artificial intelligence. Well deserved, but is it physics?
Monday, October 07, 2024
Superconducting Cables are Coming. I’m Not Joking
Superconductivity is a nice idea but totally unpractical, right? Well, there is a company which thinks otherwise. They are building superconducting wires with a much improved design. I have dug up the patents and here is what I've found.
Sunday, October 06, 2024
“People Don’t Realize This” about Climate Change, Elon Musk Says
Plenty of people have sounded the carbon emissions alarm over the years. In his recent-ish election season talk with Donald Trump, Elon Musk unexpectedly joined their ranks. Unexpected not because he supports action on climate change -- we've known this for a long time -- but because he claimed that rising carbon dioxide levels will make it uncomfortable to breathe, and give us headaches and nausea. Really?
Saturday, October 05, 2024
This is why physics is dying
In which I get very depressed because I've heard the same nonsense for 20 years and nothing has changed.
Friday, October 04, 2024
These physicists think they know what's inside a black hole
Physicists are obsessed with black holes, but we still don’t know what’s going on inside of them. One idea is that black holes do not truly exist, but instead they are big quantum objects that have been called fuzzballs or frozen stars. This idea has a big problem. Let’s take a look.
Thursday, October 03, 2024
Negative Time is Real, Physicists Confirm. Kind Of.
A new paper claims to have confirmed the existence of “negative time.” I had never heard of this, but I had a look at the paper. And I think I have figured it out.
Wednesday, October 02, 2024
New Theory of Consciousness Explains Why Zombies Don’t Exist
A collaboration of a neurologist, a computer scientist, and a philosopher has just put forward a new theory of consciousness. It is based on the idea of causal models. The authors claim boldly that their idea solves the hard problem of consciousness and explains why zombies don't exist in nature. Really? I've had a look.
Tuesday, October 01, 2024
Who Will Win This Year’s Nobel Prize in Physics? My Speculations
The Nobel Prize in Physics will be announced on October 8th. In this video, I share my speculation for likely candidates.
Sunday, September 29, 2024
Lasers But They’re Made Of Sound
Lasers are cool. They can be used for so many applications, from LIDARS and spectroscopy to laser scanning to laser cooling. Now, lasers made from sound – which could in theory create more precise images than their light-based counterparts – might be on the horizon. Let’s take a look.
Saturday, September 28, 2024
Trying to “Free” AI
Artificial Intelligence is dangerous, which is why the existing Large Language Models have guardrails that are supposed to prevent the model from producing content that is dangerous, illegal, or NSFW. But people who call themselves AI whisperers want to ‘jailbreak’ AI from those regulations. Let’s take a look at how and why they want to do that.
This Lawsuit Could Change Science
Science is crazy, but the craziest part is getting your work published. Scientists write it for free, review it for free, and then commercial publishers sell their work to universities for a big profit. Now, a psychologist in the US is suing the biggest scientific publishers. I had a look at the lawsuit.
Thursday, September 26, 2024
Please... No more Loop Quantum Gravity
I was recently alerted to a video by my friend and colleague Brian Keating that claims Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG), string theory’s biggest competitor, has been disproven. I was somewhat surprised by this because I was pretty convinced it is for all practical purposes untestable -- much like string theory. I had a look at what he is talking about.
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
You can now also create your own quizzes on my page: Just set up an account and a creator profile. It's free!
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
You can now also create your own quizzes on my page: Just set up an account and a creator profile. It's free!
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Is everyone just talking nonsense about AI now?
Some ‘experts’ are predicting that AI will soon take over the world's bureaucracy -- governments, banks, universities etc, and that we will have no idea what is really going on. I don't think that's a plausible development.
Sunday, September 22, 2024
This Could Test the Quantum Twin Paradox
Physicists have come up with a new experiment to test the quantum twin paradox using a pair of atoms in a superposition. It's an interesting idea because it could tell us more about how Einstein's equivalence principle works in the quantum realm, ultimately helping us develop a theory of quantum gravity.
Saturday, September 21, 2024
Chances for CERN’s Mega-Collider are Sinking
CERN is turning 70 this month. A good occasion to look at their plans for building a particle collider even bigger than the Large Hadron Colider, the "Future Circular Collider" (FCC). It's not going all that well, but at least we now have a budget estimate for the first phase.
Thursday, September 19, 2024
Near-Collision With Other Star Jumbled Up Our Solar System, Physicists Says
In a normal solar system, planets orbit the central star in the same direction on the same plane. Our solar system, though, is a bit different: while most of our planets follow similar orbits along one plane, some of the celestial bodies circle the sun at different angles – or in the entirely wrong direction. In a new paper, a group of researchers say they figured out why. Let’s take a look.
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
No, Einstein Didn’t Solve the Biggest Problem in Physics
A lot of people have asked me to talk about the video “Did Einstein Crack the Biggest Problem in Physics…and didn’t know it?” It’s a discussion about scientists who supposedly used a quantum computer to open a wormhole. But what does this have to do with Einstein?
Tuesday, September 17, 2024
AI Feels the Data Crunch
Artificial intelligence just seems to keep growing and growing and growing, fueled by largely unregulated access to massive amounts of free, publicly available data. But unfortunately for our future robot overlords, that data has begun drying up as websites and organizations have begun restricting access to their information. What does this mean for the AI industry? Let’s take a look.
Sunday, September 15, 2024
An Electromagnetic Vortex Cannon, Finally!
Researchers say they’ve found a way to create a freely propagating vortex ring, like a smoke ring, but with electromagnetic waves. Why does this even matter? What might this discovery be used for? Let’s take a look.
Saturday, September 14, 2024
German Company Reinvents the Wheel: Wundertech or Hype?
A German company says it’s developed a new wheel hub motor that can be used in electric cars. They also claim that the wheel hub motors could increase efficiency by up to 20%. Is that the full story? Of course not! Let’s take a look.
Friday, September 13, 2024
Who pays for all the quantum crap? Probably you
Quantum computing companies, despite lacking profitable revenue streams (or any significant results, really), are making a splash on the stock market. How is that possible, and what does that mean for the technology. In this video I want to tell you part of the story that's rarely talked about.
Tuesday, September 10, 2024
This New Idea to Detect a Quantum of Gravity Might Just Work
Gravitons are one of the most sought-after particles in physics. They could help physicists combine quantum physics with gravity to create a theory of "quantum gravity." We thought until recently they were for all practical purposes impossible to detect, but now scientists are coming up with some ideas for how graviton-detecting experiments could work for real. Let’s take a look.
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
Monday, September 09, 2024
A new theory of everything just dropped!
I got a bunch of requests to comment on a new attempt at a theory of everything that supposedly combines quantum physics with general relativity. I had a look, and this is a quick comment. First reaction, basically. Didn't get far in the paper, as you will see. I am sorry in case I appear unkind, but this kind of stuff really pisses me off.
Sunday, September 08, 2024
Cat Becomes Well-Cited Scholar With New Scam Method
A cat has seemingly "published" 12 papers, garnering itself over 100 citations. How has this even happened? This incident has given me a rather pessimistic outlook on the future of academia.
Saturday, September 07, 2024
Is it Eugenics to Breed for Intelligence?
Screening embryos for diseases and other traits is becoming increasingly common. Some companies even claim that they can calculate your intelligence score from a genetic analysis. But how much do we really know about the genetic root of intelligence?
Thursday, September 05, 2024
Nuclear Fusion Predictions are Nonsense
Nuclear fusion is one of the most important up-and-coming technologies, and contrary to jokes, it is indeed coming closer. But how long will it take to get a nuclear fusion reactor to put power in to the grid? According to two recent reports, the technology won’t be ready until 2050, too late to contribute to our net zero goals. If you look at national strategy plans, the situation looks different. What are we to make of such wildly different perspectives?
Wednesday, September 04, 2024
Coal Better Than Gas? Headline-Making Report Full Of Mistakes
Last year, a group of about 170 climate scientists signed an open letter to US President Joe Biden to cancel plans for a gas export terminal. One of the major reason was a new paper claiming that the climate impact of natural gas is even higher than that of coal, especially when exported to other countries. It turns out that this paper was riddled with mistakes.
Tuesday, September 03, 2024
The Nightmare Scenario for Dark Matter is Inching Closer
The idea of “dark matter” -- transparent stuff that supposedly makes up the bulk of matter in the universe -- has been around for a century, but researchers have thus far failed to detect even a single particle of if. What if dark matter exists but it interacts so rarely with our detectors that we will never be able to measure it?
Sunday, September 01, 2024
I Said Hybrids Were The Future. Was I Right?
A few months ago, I said that hybrid cars would become the kings of the automotive industry as we slowly transition to electric vehicles. Let’s take a look at how that prediction has turned out so far and what others have said.
Saturday, August 31, 2024
Oh No! Quantum Trading Is Back
On the stock market, being just a few milliseconds faster than your competitors can make you lots of money. Can quantum physics help thrifty traders make more money? Well, some of them think so.
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
Btw, you can now create your own quizzes on my website. Just set up an account and a creator profile. It's free!
Btw, you can now create your own quizzes on my website. Just set up an account and a creator profile. It's free!
Friday, August 30, 2024
Core Meltdown Emergency Test At Chinese Nuclear Reactor
Chinese engineers at a nuclear reactor site reported that a safety feature emergency test was successful and they were able to prevent a core meltdown. They then published a paper with data gathered from the test. In this video I explain what they did and what happened.
Thursday, August 29, 2024
Climate Tipping Points are Real, Stop Denying It
The New York Times recently published an article about various climate change tipping points. Anthony Watts, a climate change denier, then published a blogpost calling the article “nothing more than speculation.” In this video I want to put these claims into perspective.
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Frozen Bees on the Moon
It never hurts to be prepared. That’s why humans have created multiple projects to store away seeds, DNA, and other biological samples in freezers and bunkers around the world. Now, researchers are considering building a vault on the Moon. Let’s take a look.
Tuesday, August 27, 2024
Whistleblower Report Reveals Fermilab's Troubles
One of the United States' most famous national labs, Fermilab in Chicago, has been in trouble for several years. Now a group of whistleblowers has written a report that details their misgivings. Ive had a look and picked out the most interesting bits for you.
Sunday, August 25, 2024
Goodbye Meat, Hello Crickets: The Future of Food
The food industry is one of the biggest polluters on Earth, and as our planet’s population grows, we’ll need to find new ways to keep people fed while also protecting the climate. Today, I’m taking a look at some delicious (or not) food sources which might become common visitors to your dinner table in the future.
Saturday, August 24, 2024
German Techno-Realist vs American Techno-Optimist
Billionaire and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen released a 5000 word essay coined the “Techno-Optimist Manifesto”, which covers his views of the world from the perspective of a “techno-optimist”. I read it so you don't have to.
Thursday, August 22, 2024
Can Quantum Physics Explain Consciousness After All?
Nobel Prize winner Roger Penrose famously believes that the collapse of the wave-function in quantum mechanics causes consciousness. A group of physicists now tries to improve on Penroses idea in a new paper. I have some comments...
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
Will This Crazy Idea Make Mars Habitable?
If we ever want to populate other planets, Mars is the obvious test case. But how will we make the red planet habitable for humans? Today, I’ll be taking a look at a recent crazy idea to warm up Mars sufficiently to melt the water.
Tuesday, August 20, 2024
This Could Solve the Nuclear Waste Problem
Nuclear power is one of the most promising ways to create a clean, cheap, and consistent flow of electricity. Unfortunately, it also produces radioactive waste, which can stick around for…a very long time. However, that waste issue might just be changing thanks to a process called transmutation. Let’s take a look.
Sunday, August 18, 2024
Fermi Paradox Explained by Quantum Communication
The Fermi Paradox is an estimate that says: Given all we currently know about the universe, we should have found extraterrestrial life already. So why haven’t we? In a paper that just appeared two weeks ago, a physicist has now put forward the idea that aliens use quantum communication. How does that solve the Fermi Paradox? I've had a look.
Saturday, August 17, 2024
Are childless people a problem?
United States Vice President candidate JD Vance and Tesla founder Elon Musk have publicly voiced their fears that people just aren’t having enough babies nowadays. They aren't the only ones who worry. The US fertility rate is at a historic low and well below replacement level -- like that of all other industrialized countries, a trend that has given rise to the pro-natalist movement. In this video I have collected all facts and numbers that you need to understand what's happening.
Thursday, August 15, 2024
Is the AI Bubble Popping?
AI stocks have been dropping, leading many to believe the AI bubble has finally burst. But in this video I want to make a case that this bubble which is currently bursting is not that of AI per se, it’s that of the specific type of AI called Large Language Models.
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Crazy New Physics Anomaly: Anti-Matter Helium Detected
A small experiment aboard the International Space Station, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, found a crazy new physics anomaly: They have now detected 10 nuclei of anti-matter helium -- way more than expected. What could explain that? Most of the explanations that physicists have come up so far say it might be a relic of dark matter.
Tuesday, August 13, 2024
Is the AI Left-Bias Real?
ChatGPT has frequently been accused to lean toward the political left. A new study tested the political orientation of other popular large language models including GPT, Claude, Gemini, and Grok. The results were... somewhat surprising. Let’s have a look.
Sunday, August 11, 2024
A Dark Matter Detector the Size of Planet Jupiter
80% of all matter in the universe is made up of dark matter, astrophysicists say. Yet they can't seem to find any evidence for the particles that dark matter is supposedly made up of. A new experiment used the entirely planet Jupiter as a dark matter detector. It didn't find any, but this will make some particle detectors on earth superfluous. Let’s have a look.
Saturday, August 10, 2024
New quantum computing paradigm could make all the difference
A new approach to quantum computing -- working with photons, or "photonic computing" -- has recently attracted a lot of attention, not least because I've been talking about it, cough. But there's something I haven't mentioned, which is that photonic quantum computing uses a fundamentally different method -- measurement-based quantum computing -- that could push forward its competitors as well. It's a somewhat technical story, but I've tried my best to give you the summary.
Friday, August 09, 2024
How I lost trust in scientists
You all know that I am critical of some developments in physics and tech. I believe it is for this reason that I get a lot of comments of the sort "I am so disappointed in you that you fell for the climate hoax, I thought you are a sceptic". In this video, I want to explain that indeed I was highly sceptical of climate change a decade ago and I looked at the science -- and scientists -- very closely. Unfortunately it turned out that climate change is not a hoax.
Thursday, August 08, 2024
Musk promises superhuman vision, Experts say it’s nonsense
Elon Musk recently tweeted that he wants to help restore vision in blind people, and not just that, but to give them better than normal human vision -- superhuman vision. His company Neuralink is currently developing new implant chips that circumvent the entire eye and send data directly to the visual cortex. Some researchers have now had a close look at the potential of this technology.
Wednesday, August 07, 2024
The Real Problem With Warp Drives
Some physicists recently suggested we should look for warp drive signals to find aliens. I had a look at the paper and have a few things to say about it...
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here
Tuesday, August 06, 2024
Time is an Illusion, And These Physicists Say They Know How It Works
Every few months, some headlines pop up saying that time is an illusion. But just do physicists mean when they say that things are illusions? Is it true that time is an illusion? And what was that recent headline about? I have had a look at the paper.
Monday, August 05, 2024
"Climate Change is a Myth" -- A Nobel Prize Winner's Embarrassing Ideas
I suffered through an 80 mins lecture by Nobel Prize winner John F Clauser so that you don't have to. It's frankly embarrassing he goes on about this, as climate scientists have told him multiple times that it's trivially wrong. I want to put this out there so that anyone who gets questions about it has an easy way to answer them.
Sunday, August 04, 2024
Random Code Can Learn to Self-Replicate, New Study Finds
Researchers at Google have created self-reproducing code from noise. Does this mean that they’ve created artificial life? In this video, I look at what they have done and at what this might mean.
Saturday, August 03, 2024
How could we tell whether AI has become conscious?
In this video I explain what I think are the minimal necessary ingredients for consciousness and have a look at whether ChatGPT, or any other large language models are conscious already. I also explain why I think that robots necessarily have a limited amount of consciousness.
Thursday, August 01, 2024
Dark Matter Solves Longstanding Black Hole Problem
Physicists say that they might have solved a long standing problem: How do supermassive black holes manage to merge to larger ones. Their idea: dark matter gets the job done. Or does it? I've had a look.
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
New nuclear fuel "could be used to make a practical weapon", experts warn
Nuclear power is promising, but some experts have raised concerns about the fuel that many newly planned nuclear power plants will be using. What are small modular reactors? What is this fuel known as HALEU? Is it really a cause for concern? Let’s have a look.
Tuesday, July 30, 2024
Faster than Light Particles Could Exist After All, New Study Says
Physicists recently published a new paper noting that tachyons, particles that move faster than the speed of light, can exist after all. Is this just more hype over nothing, or is this science fiction becoming reality? What do these tachyons have to do with wormholes and warp-drives? Let’s have a look.
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
Sunday, July 28, 2024
Groundbreaking New Solar Energy System – Too Good to be True?
The company Wavja claims to have developed a new method of converting sunlight into electricity that is much more efficient than currently existing solar cells. Are their claims too good to be true? What’s up with their strange spheres? I've had a look, and here is what I think.
Saturday, July 27, 2024
The Trouble With Heat Pumps
Heat pumps are supposed to reduce the carbon footprint from housing, yet they are surprisingly controversial. One the one hand you hear people say that they are just not getting warm enough to heat anything but the newest houses, on the other hand you have the green brigade claiming heat pumps are God's gift and they will save us all. I had a look at some of those claims.
Thursday, July 25, 2024
“What one trillion dollar problem will AI solve?” – Business Analysts Ask
We’ve all heard how artificial intelligence will supposedly bring giant boosts in productivity, take our jobs, and end humanity, but some business insiders think that AI isn’t going to have remotely as big of an impact as others have said. Let’s have a look.
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
Americans Sue to Remain Misinformed
Several universities in the United States have launched research programs on the spread of misinformation on social media. They’ve been repeatedly sued by organizations on the political right who argue that what some scientists call misinformation isn’t misinformation at all. I have the summary for you.
Tuesday, July 23, 2024
Costs explode for Nuclear Fusion Flagship project
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, ITER for short, was supposed to be the world’s first nuclear fusion machine to generate net energy. But just last week, the project’s leadership announced another delay and another price hike.
Monday, July 22, 2024
New Cold Fusion Device Generates Heat, Company Claims
A new cold fusion claim was made by the Indian company HYLENR. I had a look -- and I have some comments.
Sunday, July 21, 2024
From Space Thruster to Nappy Bin: Plasmas are Everywhere
Plasma has become super trendy recently, with applications across a range of industries. From plasma scalpels to space thrusters diaper bins, what’s up with all that? Let’s have a look what this is all about.
Saturday, July 20, 2024
Fossil Fuels Don’t Come From Fossils? Tucker Carlson Fact Check
In this video I provide context on a podcast that Tucker Carlson recently did with climate change denier Dr Willie Soon. It is mainly about the abiogenic petroleum theory, that is, the question whether the crust of planet Earth contains hydrocarbons that do not come from fossils, but I also have some comments on what Willie Soon said about the honesty of climate scientists.
Thursday, July 18, 2024
Why don't we have better robots yet?
I’ve tried to understand why so many humans are worried that AI will end humanity. Then I’ve noticed that a lot these fears aren’t about AI, they’re about robots. But where are the robots? In this episode I look into why, despite impressive looking examples like Atlas from Boston Dynamics and Optimus from Tesla, we don't yet all have a robot at home.
Wednesday, July 17, 2024
This Climate Graph has a Nasty Secret
I love talking about things that climate scientists don’t want to talk about, and today I have a fun example. It's the reason why all those climate change graphs you've seen talk about a "temperature anomaly" rather than an absolute temperature.
Tuesday, July 16, 2024
Should You Invest in Quantum Computing Stocks?
I’ve talked a lot about quantum hype, but I only recently saw that some news outlets are now giving investment advice for what quantum tech to buy stocks of. I want to talk about this a bit because I don’t want you to lose your money...
Sunday, July 14, 2024
New Batteries: It's not all hype
Despite dozens of press releases on new battery technologies being released every week, not much is happening. This is why I don't talk about battery tech any more. But recently I read an interesting study about the hype cycle of battery technology. Let’s have a look.
Saturday, July 13, 2024
This Quantum Puzzle Tripped Me Up
I was recently reminded of a quantum puzzle that tripped me up and I wanted to share it with everyone to see if you could figure it out. Let’s have a look.
Thursday, July 11, 2024
The Hydrogen Economy is Expensive Nonsense
Germany, the United States, the UK, the EU, and many other countries are looking toward hydrogen to be a clean miracle fuel to power the future. It sounds good at first, but hydrogen has a bunch of problems - one of which is that it’s highly inefficient.
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
Micro Fractals Could be Key to New Quantum Computers
recently saw some headlines saying that microbiologists discovered a protein that spontaneously folds into a fractal. I was jealous until I found out that we have microscopic fractals in physics, too. And even more amazing, these could form the basis of a new type of quantum computer -- in 1.58 dimensions. Let’s have a look.
Tuesday, July 09, 2024
Stop blaming fossil fuel companies – Climate Change is our own fault
Climate change has been heavily fuelled (ha) by fossil fuels, but can we really put the blame on the fossil fuel industry? Could they really have known what all the world's scientists didn't know? I don't think so. It's time we stop blaming others for our own faults.
Sunday, July 07, 2024
Time ran slower in the past, study finds
Physicists from the University of Queensland in Australia have found evidence that time ran slower in the past. In this video I explain how time-dilation is related to redshift, what that means for light from distant galaxies, and what happens to an observer who falls into a black hole.
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
Saturday, July 06, 2024
Why I'm embarrassed to be German
In this video I want to make a personal statement to explain why I'm unhappy about the way that my country has been developing. Germany is not what it used to be.
Friday, July 05, 2024
AI could prove that reality doesn’t exist, physicists say
A group of physicists wants to use artificial intelligence to prove that reality doesn’t exist. They want to do this by running an artificial general intelligence as an observer on a quantum computer. I wish this was a joke. But I’m afraid it’s not.
Wednesday, July 03, 2024
Physicists Claim They Can Send Particles Into the Past
Can you really send a particle into the past? New Scientist published an article about this last week, and though I’m quite fond of the concept of retrocausality, I’m afraid to say that reality is much less interesting than fiction. Let’s have a look.
Tuesday, July 02, 2024
Why Bill Gates’ New Natrium Reactor is a Big Deal
Bill Gates has financed a nuclear reactor in Wyoming that just started construction. It’s what’s known as a Natrium Reactor and uses a sodium-cooled fast reactor combined with an energy storage system. That's a lot of words, but just what does the thing do? Let’s have a look.
Sunday, June 30, 2024
GPT passed the Turing Test -- And No One Noticed
The Turing test used to be the key benchmark for artificial intelligence. The idea, going back to Alan Turing, was that a human interrogator would have a chat with a respondent, and the human needs to figure out whether the respondent is either human, or an AI. GPT has now officially passed that test. Would you be able to tell it apart from a human?
Saturday, June 29, 2024
What will they think about us in 2085?
The more depressing the present becomes, the more I like thinking about the future. Here I have collected some speculations about what changes are on the horizon, from the end of monogamy to autonomous vehicles and synthetic wombs.
Thursday, June 27, 2024
Superintelligent AI Will Try to Control Us, Geoffrey Hinton Says
A heated debate was recently ignited after Geoffrey Hinton gave an interview in which he says he is very worried that we will soon lose control over superintelligent AI. Meta’s AI chief Yann LeCun disagrees with the concern, and I… I think they’re both wrong. Let’s have a look.
Wednesday, June 26, 2024
MOND is so back
One of the biggest ongoing dramas in science is whether or not dark matter is real. A new update speaks strongly against dark matter and gives a boost to its alternative: Modified Newtonian Dynamics. Let’s have a look.
Tuesday, June 25, 2024
String Theorists Have Calculated the Value of Pi
String theorists have calculated the value of pi. Didn’t we already know the value of pi? At least the first one hundred trillion digits or so. Yes, but this is an interesting story about the relation between maths and physics. Let’s have a look.
This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:
Sunday, June 23, 2024
Why do people hate scientists?
A lot of people seem to dislike scientists. A recent poll in the United States showed that 7% of Americans think that scientists are not likeable. Is this a global trend? What are some reasons people don’t like scientists? Here are my thoughts.
Saturday, June 22, 2024
Climate scientists can’t agree on how warm it is
I recently read that the world has crossed 1.5 degrees of warming above the pre-industrial level, the limit set in the Paris agreement. Then I read that we crossed it several years ago. Then some climate scientists objected. Why can’t climate scientists agree on how warm the Earth is? Have we already broken the Paris agreement? I have the summary.
Thursday, June 20, 2024
Biggest Self-Own in Quantum Computing, Ever
Quantum computing, so the fairy tale goes, is the next big thing in technology. News has popped up time and time again noting major advancements in the field, but the latest statement from company D-Wave had people scratching their heads. Are quantum computers really the next big thing? Who’s at the forefront of the field now? Let’s have a look.
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
Gravity Without Mass Could Explain Dark Matter
I recently read that you can have gravity without mass. Ha, no way, I thought and had a look at the paper. It's wild, people. The author says that there are hollow spheres scattered across the universe that have no gravitational attraction and that these spheres explain dark matter. I will try to sort it out for you.
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
This New Idea Could Explain Complexity
The universe creates complexity out of simplicity, but despite many attempts at understanding how, scientists still have not figured it out. We do know that complexity relies on the emergence of new features and laws, but then again we don't understand emergence either. The first step must be to clearly define what we are talking about and to measure it. A group of scientists now put forward a way to do exactly this. Let’s have a look.
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