Quantum Gravity Breaks Causality -- And You Can Compute With It

If you flip a light switch, the light will turn on. A cause and its effect. Simple enough… until quantum gravity come into play. Once you add quantum gravity, lights can turn on and make switches flip. And some physicists think that this could help build better computers. Why does quantum physics make causality so strange? And how can we use quantum gravity to build faster computers? Let’s have a look.

Quantum Cognition: Does it explain irrational decisions?

Humans can sometimes be hard to understand, much like quantum physics - unless you watch this channel regularly of course^^. That’s why a mathematician has come out with an idea of “quantum cognition”. What is this so-called quantum cognition? Does it explain why humans make irrational decisions? Let’s have a look.

20 Years-Old Puzzle (Almost) Solved: The Muon Anomaly

Three years ago, there was a frenzy over an experiment at Fermilab that confirmed anomaly of the muon - a fundamental particle in the standard model. Since then, physicists have debated whether the theory needs to be revised or whether there is something wrong with the calculation. A new paper now says it's neither.

Biggest Ever Quantum Vortex Created for Black Hole Simulation

A cute new experiment at the university of Nottingham has created a "quantum tornado" by which they want to study what quantum effects are going on nearby black holes. Does this make any sense? Let’s have a look.

Should I be terrified of climate change? Should you be terrified?

I have now come across a bunch of articles in which scientists are more or less explicitly advocating that we scare people into action on climate change. To me this is a step from information to manipulation. Let’s have a look.

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AI needs a LOT of energy. But that is not its main problem.

Artificial Intelligence consumes a lot of energy, both during training and during operation. We’ve heard a lot about this. Indeed, Sam Altman the CEO of OpenAI recently said that we’ll need small modular nuclear reactors just to power all those AIs. Well, hold that thought. Today I want to look at how much energy these AIs really need and explain why I think this isn’t the main problem.

Who Owns the Clouds? Cloud Seeding May Cause Global Water War

Cloud seeding is a way to make clouds rain before they naturally would. It is becoming increasingly common. Just in the past months, it has been used around the world to combat droughts, clean polluted air, and fight wildfires. But what are the ramifications of controlling the weather? Will this lead to water wars in the future? Let’s have a look.

Shots Fired for Nuclear Fusion, Literally

Nuclear fusion by inertial confinement has seen dramatic progress in the past year years. After their big headlines in 2022, the National Ignition Facility has managed to pretty reliably reproduce ignition, and more recently, First Light Fusion collaborated with Sandia Labs on a remarkable experiment.

Why is life left-handed? We might finally know

Everyone knows the classic double helix-shape of DNA, but no one knows why the DNA twists one way and not the other. Scientists have been trying to figure out why organic molecules have the particular orientation that they do - this so-called “handedness”. It seems like one of those questions that we'll never answer, but to my surprise recently there's been some progress on answering the question.

Our Galaxy Has a Really Weird Black Hole

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We Need To Stop Lying about Plastic To Ourselves

Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle. We’ve all seen this motto as the end-all-be-all solution to the plastic waste problem. But a recent report reveals that the fossil fuel industry has promoted the recycling myth for decades, despite knowing that it wouldn't work. Indeed, there's been little progress in dealing with the millions of tons of plastic waste created every year. Why isn’t more plastic recycled? What can we do to solve the plastic waste issue? Let’s have a look.

The Butterfly Effect is Much Worse Than We Thought

A butterfly flaps its wings in China and causes a Tornado in Texas - that’s a popular example of the “Butterfly Effect.” However, scientists now say that the Butterfly Effect might be even more dramatic than previously thought, and that molecular noise can do it.

Q-Day: When Quantum Computers Will Decode National Secrets

Some recent headlines have been touting that Q-Day is coming potentially as soon as 2025. What is Q-Day? It’s the day when quantum computers will be able to crack the current encryption protocols that we use on the internet. How big of a threat is Q-Day really? And is it really coming next year? Let’s have a look.

Maths is about to revolutionize privacy

In this video I want to explain the idea behind homomorphic encryption that is a super neat application of what is admittedly rather obscure maths. The implications for data privacy and with that also scientific research are enormous. And it's not in the far future either, several companies are bringing out microchips ideally suited to deal with homomorphic encryption this year.

Credentials against Deepfakes: How will it work?

Some major news outlets are about to release a feature known as “Content Credentials” to try and combat the spread of deepfakes. What are “Content Credentials”? Will it really stop deepfakes of Biden and Trump dancing together from spreading? Let’s have a look.

We need to start climate engineering soon

Climate engineering is the cheapest way to get us out of this unfolding climate disaster, but how do we do it? Two new papers have recently been released - one discussing the need to start stratospheric aerosol injections soon and the other introducing a new method of climate engineering. What are the pros and cons of stratospheric aerosol injections? What is this new method? Let’s have a look.

D-wave reports stunning success with quantum simulation

The quantum computing company D-Wave has reported that they’ve managed to complete a calculation that would have taken a conventional computer millions of years in fractions of a second. How did they achieve this impressive feat? What’s behind the scepticism over D-Wave’s machine?

Three Physics Mysteries Solved At Once: Postquantum Gravity

For the first time in 4 decades, physicists have found a new approach to solving a problem which is almost a century old: How to combine quantum physics with gravity. I told you about this new approach, called “Postquantum Gravity” from Johnathan Oppenheim briefly before Christmas. He and his collaborators are now saying that their idea also explains dark matter and dark energy.



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I just found out what .ai means

Do you know what the website ending .ai stands for? Well, it's not Artificial Intelligence, let me tell you that much. And then there is the story of the Tokelau, a tiny island in the pacific ocean, which became unwitting host for millions of scam and phishing websites. It's a world wild web, indeed.

Exploding stars made of dark matter could heat up universe

85% of the universe is dark matter, astrophysicists say. You already knew this of course. But did you also know that scientists are now saying that some of this dark matter might form stars, the so-called axion stars. And that these stars may explode? What are axion stars? Is this plausible? How could we find out whether it's correct? Let’s have a look.


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Whatever happened to string theory?

String theory was a beautiful idea, the best contender for a theory of everything that we have seen so far. Thousands of physicists spend decades trying to work it out. But it didn’t quite go according to plan. String theory became extremely controversial during what's been dubbed the “String Wars” about 20 years ago. Then it kind of disappeared. What happened? What were the string wars? And what are string theorists doing now? That’s what we’ll talk about today.


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Heat Pumps Finally Make Sense -- Maybe

Most buildings across the globe are heated with gas and oil despite heat pumps being a much more energy-efficient alternative. While some countries have been keen on adopting them, others have been slow on the uptake. Why have some countries been hesitant to push the technology? Could a new upgrade to heat pumps make them a more viable heating option? Let’s have a look.

Yes, AI will become sentient

A brief comment on this week's news about Claude 3 supposedly showing self-awareness.

Compact Disks make Comeback: Memory could Exceed Petabytes

Memory storage technology has come a long way from compact disks. Or has it? In a recent paper, scientists report they were able to fit petabytes of memory onto a compact disk using new laser technologies and advanced material design. Is this the future of data storage? Let’s have a look.

Anti-matter for space-travel?

I got some questions the other week about an article in business insider that says it’s possible to power rockets with anti-matter and the only thing that’s preventing us from doing it is: cost. Really? The business insider writes about anti-matter. Should you buy stocks? Let’s have a look.

Scientists warn of AI collapse

We’ve all become used to AI-generated art in the form of text, images, audio, and even videos. Despite its prevalence, scientists are warning that AI creativity may soon die. Why is that? What does this mean for the future of AI? And will human creativity be in demand after all? Let’s have a look.

New approach to quantum computing could soon beat IBM

Physicists have shattered previous limits of the new technology of "atoms in tweezers". They have collected more than 1000 atoms that could save as qubits, hinting at a scalable future for the technology. This breakthrough, challenges the currently more dominant qubit methods and signals a significant step towards commercially viable quantum computing.

Black holes might be dark stars with layers: New solution found

Do black holes even exist? You might think the evidence is overwhelming. But in a new paper, physicists have shown that Einstein's theories allow another option, it's that black holes might be layers of shells with dark energy inside. I had a look, and here's what I learned.

Astrophysicists keep finding things that “shouldn’t exist”. I think I know why.

You have probably seen headlines in the past years about lots of things out there in the cosmos that, according to astrophysicists "shouldn't exist". Why is this happening? In this video I want to offer my explanation and why I predict a continuation of such headlines unless astrophysicists consolidate their data and take predictions more seriously.