Will AI Save Physics?

OpenAI’s Sam Altman and other AI preachers have claimed that AI might one day “solve physics.” Is this true? What would this even mean? In this video I have a look at what current and potentially future AI could do for physics.

Physicists Just Invented a New Particle Accelerator!

Particle accelerator technology has just gotten bigger and bigger over the years, making physics more and more expensive. Luckily, researchers are looking into alternatives to the CERN’s multi-kilometer accelerators. Today we’re taking a look at the so-called micronozzle, a new concept in the world of particle accelerator tech — and a promising one.

Is China Winning the Quantum Race?

According to multiple recent reports, China’s quantum computing industry is making quick progress, and the West should be worried about its pace. Just exactly what is going on? Let’s take a look.

AI makes us dumb, researchers show

If you’ve ever used AI and felt a bit dumber for it, you’re not alone. But now you can claim that your feelings are backed by some research. According to multiple new studies (and some anecdotal evidence), AI is negatively impacting people’s abilities to read, write, and process information. Let’s take a look.

Breakthrough on 125 Year-Old Physics Problem

David Hilbert’s Sixth Problem is 125 years old and asks for an axiomatic foundation of physics. A good place to start with this, said Hilbert, would be fluid dynamics – physicists should be able to prove that our fluid dynamics equations are rooted in how we understand atoms behave when they bump into each other. This would also explain the origin of irreversibility in our lives, or the “arrow of time” as physicists like to say. Over a century later, mathematicians have made a major breakthrough in this arena. Let’s take a look.

This is how they use AI to manipulate us

The AI revolution is already here, but not as you think. Companies all over the world are working very hard at “microtargeting” you with their ads and tracking your every online-move. Scammers are having a good time with deepfakes, and scientists help along by figuring out how to best use AI to engineer human behavior. Let’s take a look at a few examples, and how AI might be further weaponized in the future.

That’s Big: Natural Hydrogen Could Power World for 100,000 Years, Survey Finds

Hydrogen is the perfect fuel in some aspects – it burns cleanly and is efficient – but unfortunately it’s currently mostly produced from fossil fuels, which isn’t clean at all. According to a new paper, though, reserves of hydrogen stored in subterranean reservoirs are more common than you’d think and could supply energy for the world for 100000 years. Really? Let’s take a look.

Physicists Have No Idea What They Have Measured

In 2006 and 2014, the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) detected two mysterious bursts of particles rushing upwards into space from Earth’s surface. Physicists initially brushed this off with a plausible but boring explanation, but that reasoning has now been thrown out the window. So it’s back to the drawing board, and we might be looking at new physics. Let’s take a look at how this happened and what it means for physics.

AI’s “Intelligence Explosion” Is Coming. Here’s What That Means.

While AI development seems to have stagnated for a bit, AI researchers are working on some seriously interesting stuff – namely, AI algorithms that can constantly improve their accuracy or learn new tasks. Just in the past months, we have seen multiple advances in self-reinforced AI learning, including some that could go beyond large language models. Let’s take a look.

We Misunderstood Key Evidence for the Big Bang Theory, Astrophysicists Claim.

In the Big Bang Theory, the cosmic microwave background — microwave-range radiation that floats through the entire universe at a steady 2.7 Kelvin — is evidence that a hot explosion of plasma kicked off the creation of the universe. But according to a new paper, the microwave radiation came from early galaxies instead. Does this mean that the big bang theory is wrong? Let’s take a look.



This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:

Is Our Universe Inside a Black Hole? This Makes it Plausible

Physicists say we live in a black hole. Not metaphorically, not emotionally, and not just during tax season. But literally, inside a black hole. And not just this. A group of researchers has published a paper claiming that we’ve got the Big Bang wrong. It was actually the collapse of an earlier universe to a black hole, which we now live in. That sounds… wild. I've had a look.



This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:

Gamechange: Theories Of Everything Can’t Exist, Physicists Show.

Physicists are still searching for a “theory of everything” which will cleanly explain every phenomenon in existence, in principle. According to a new paper, though, they search in vain: an all-encompassing theory of everything is mathematically impossible. Let’s take a look.

Does AI Already Have Free Will?

AI is becoming an increasingly important decision maker in our society whether you like it or not. But can an AI have free will? And should it be made responsible for its decisions? Philosophers are arguing both sides of the issue – let’s take a look.

We Might Finally Know Where Gold Comes From

Scientists have long been confused about where exactly gold comes from. While neutron star mergers are a plausible origin story for most of the gold in our universe, we have known for some while that the numbers don’t add up. Now, though, astrophysicists say they know how the remaining gold was created. Let’s take a look.

Surprise Progress in Quantum Computing

Quantum computing companies always claim that the next big breakthrough is around the corner. Usually you can safely ignore those claims, but a recent series of quantum computing developments might mean that commercially useful quantum computers could be just a few years off. And it looks like they are becoming dangerous faster than we thought. Let’s take a look.

This changed my life

how I learned to copy with knowing that my life is predetermined

New Evidence AI Thinks Like Humans—So Why Can’t It Reason?

In this video I have a look at the recent Apple paper that made headlines with the "Illusion of Thinking", the criticism of it, and another paper about AI thinking that appeared at almost the same time.

What is empty space?

What is empty space? In this video I summarize what physics tells us about this. What really are virtual particles? What do they have to do with the vacuum energy and can we extract this energy?



This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:

Qubits Can Create Space, Physicists Show

In a stunning new paper, a pair of physicists argue that space could be made up of qubits, the building blocks of quantum computers, giving support to Wheeler’s “It from Qubit” idea according to which everything is ultimately qubits. Does this mean that the universe might be a quantum computer? Let’s take a look.

We Have An Aura of Visible Light, Scientists Show

Has anybody ever told you that they like your aura? Well, maybe they weren’t as crazy as you thought. According to a new study, living beings do indeed have an aura in the visible range of the spectrum. What colour is it? I’ve had a look.