Showing all posts about science
Universe to astronomers: I am stranger than you imagine
4 December 2025
Kurzgesagt making sense of a non-sensical universe:
For decades, we’ve had a beautiful theory of the cosmos. One that explained how the universe began, what it’s made of, and how it’s supposed to behave. It matched our observations astonishingly well and made us feel like we’d almost deciphered the cosmic code. But in the last few years, as our telescopes got better and our data sharper, cracks started to appear. Strange mismatches between what the theory predicted and what we actually saw.
British astronomer Arthur Eddington wrote in a book published in 1927, saying: “not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.” He was riffing on the words of compatriot scientist J. B. S. Haldane, who wrote, also in 1927: “now, my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.”
Stranger. Queerer. Take your pick.
These people nailed the nature of the universe one hundred years ago, with a fraction of the knowledge we have today. And what we know now will likely only represent a mere fraction what we’ll know in another one-hundred years. I think it’s a little too soon to say we’ve figured out the universe.
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Too complicated for algorithms: the universe cannot be a simulation
3 November 2025
The bus I’m on arrives at an interchange stop but a minute late and misses the connecting service which left a minute earlier than scheduled. The bean grinder at the cafe breaks down just as I arrive.
The door phone at a friend’s apartment is on the blink, and I’m in a phone black spot and unable to call them. The internet connection drops mid way through a bank transaction, and refuses to reconnect for several minutes, leaving me wondering whether the payment went through or not.
A micro-tear in my water bottle partly soaks the contents of my day bag. A succession of late-evening (no less) traffic delays sees us reach the supermarket a minute after closing time. My laptop crashes as I open the lid to resume a session. This is what happened one day.
They’re all minor irritations, but were pretty much consecutive. Of course it was a run of bad luck, yet occasions like these are enough to make me think the universe is a simulation, I’m a Sim, and am being cruelly manipulated by player of the game that is the universe we live in.
I need no longer think that though. An international team of researchers, lead by Dr Mir Faizal of Canada’s University of British Columbia, have found the universe is, in essence, too complicated an entity to be the product of a computer generated simulation:
Their findings, published in the Journal of Holography Applications in Physics, go beyond simply suggesting that we’re not living in a simulated world like The Matrix. They prove something far more profound: the universe is built on a type of understanding that exists beyond the reach of any algorithm.
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NASA plans to send four people around the Moon in 2026
8 October 2025
The astronauts, who may depart as soon as February 2026, will not land on the Moon though.
Their flight sounds like it will be similar to Apollo 8 in 1968, which yielded this incredible photo, taken by William Anders. The Artemis program will potentially pave the way for a longer term human presence on the Moon, which is a worthwhile goal.
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A loophole for surviving the heat-death of the universe, or a noose?
3 October 2025
The people at Kurzgesagt are pretty clued-up. They must learn a lot, about everything really, in their line of work. As a result of this ceaseless learning, they might have found a way, for whatever lifeforms are still present, to evade the eventual heat-death of the universe.
Although still conjecture, this is how the universe might “end”, in trillions of years hence. Long after the last star has stopped shining, long after the last black hole has finally disintegrated.
Under this scenario, the universe won’t, or isn’t expected to, collapse in on itself. Seemingly the cosmos will continue expanding forever, as a dark, cold, void.
This, however, appears to the ideal environment for eternal life. In short, a civilisation Kurzgesagt calls the Noxans, will harvest vast amounts of energy from their galaxy, or what’s left of it. This will be stored in a massive battery bank, which the Noxans will draw off for untold trillions of years.
Untold trillions of years, but not forever. This near eternal life, however, won’t be living as we know it.
The temperature in the universe at this stage will be barely an iota above zero degrees on the Kelvin (K) scale. For reference water freezes at about two-hundred-and-seventy degrees on the Kelvin scale. Zero degrees K, or absolute zero, will be pretty cold. Too cold to even play ice-hockey.
But the Noxans will not be particularly active. Their digital avatars, which is all that will remain of them, will spend their waking hours engaged only in thought.
They will need to slumber to conserve resources. But this off-time will aid in cooling them down further, in turn reducing their power needs, in turn extending the life of their batteries. Didn’t the Noxans do well, surviving trillions upon trillions of years after the universe’s heat-death?
Kurzgesagt calls their method a loophole, but it seems more like a noose to me.
I’m curious as to what sort of material the battery banks, and whatever structure the Noxans will “reside” in, are made of. How will these endure for eternity without repair or replacement?
But sitting around in an ice-box until the battery goes flat doesn’t seem like fun. There has to be a better way for a civilisation to live forever. And maybe there is.
The Noxans, it should be pointed out, are what’s called a Type III civilisation on the Kardashev scale. This means they’re able to harness all the energy within a galaxy.
In comparison, Type I civilisations control all the energy on their planet, Type II their solar system. Humanity might be considered a zero-point-seven civilisation. But when Nikolai Kardashev, a Soviet astronomer, draw up his scale in 1964, he did not venture beyond Type III.
Other people though, including Hungarian academic Zoltan Galántai, speculate the existence of Type IIII, and even V civilisations, may be possible.
A Type IIII civilisation would have all the energy of the universe at its disposal. Type V entities meanwhile could probably create a whole new universe in which to live. This seems like a better plan for the Noxans. If they’ve made it as far up the scale as III, they could push on higher.
Reaching the ultimate top level, in this case V, would be a challenge, as I’m sure any gamer could tell you. But if the Noxans start now, with potentially many, many, trillions of years in front of them, I’m sure they could do it.
Eventually freezing to death in a glorified refrigerator seems like an absurd idea in comparison.
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V Sagittae nova might outshine Antares, Betelgeuse supernovas
29 September 2025
A binary stellar system consisting of a Wolf–Rayet (WR) star, and a larger main sequence star, known as V Sagittae, are predicted to erupt in a massive explosion, possibly before the end of the century*.
Presently the WR body is furiously feeding on the substance of its nearby companion. The stars orbit each other about every twelve hours, and are gradually drawing closer together.
When both collide, they will explode as a nova.
The remnant of the nova explosion will be visible from Earth during the day, so fierce will the event be. V Sagittae is ten-thousand light years away from Earth, so we will be well clear of the blast zone.
Two red giant stars, Antares and Betelgeuse, being about five-hundred-and-fifty, and six-hundred-and-forty light years respectively away, will explode as supernovas eventually.
Astronomers think Antares may last at least another one-million years, while they give Betelgeuse about one-hundred-thousand years.
My money has been on Antares going first, but that looks like a real outside chance. Instead, I will, where possible, keep my eyes on the Sagitta constellation, where V Sagittae is located.
* I’m not sure if the nova/explosion has already occurred and becomes visible before the end of the century, or the actual explosion takes place then, meaning it won’t be visible for ten-thousand years.
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A planet might orbit Alpha Centauri A: send Chrysalis there instead
21 August 2025
The planet’s existence — orbiting Alpha Centauri A, part of the nearest stellar system to the Sun — has not yet been confirmed. If there though, the body would be situated within Alpha Centauri A’s (AKA Rigil Kentaurus) habitable zone, a star similar to our Sun.
That could be a more “Earth-like” planet, certainly more so than any planets orbiting the third member of the Alpha Centauri trinary: red dwarf star Proxima Centauri.
If anyone is serious about sending a sixty-kilometre long, multi-generational spaceship, named Chrysalis, on a four-hundred year, one-way, journey to Alpha Centauri, then the would-be planet hosted by Alpha Centauri A would be a more sensible destination.
Once, that is, the planet is confirmed to exist, in-fact resides in Alpha Centauri A’s habitable zone, and is truly “Earth-like”, not just some rock with a slight atmosphere, and a bit of liquid water.
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A four-hundred year, one way, trip to Proxima Centauri? Is this sci-fi?
13 August 2025
A proposal to build a multi-generational spaceship — named Chrysalis — that’s nearly sixty-kilometres in length, and would spend four-hundred years travelling to the star presently closest to the Sun, Proxima Centuri, recently won first prize in the Project Hyperion Design Competition.
The vessel, which would be fitted out with tropical forests, schools, workplaces, libraries, and manufacturing facilities, among other things, could house over two-thousand people. Obviously some travellers on Chrysalis, would live their entire lives only on the gigantic ship.
So far, so good. Aside from the ethical matter of consigning your descendants to a life lived on a sixty-kilometre long tin-can, whether they like it or not. But the proposal becomes a little murkier when we learn the vessel’s precise destination:
Chrysalis is designed to house several generations of people until it enters the star system, where it could shuttle them to the surface of the planet Proxima Centuri b — an Earth-size exoplanet that is thought to be potentially habitable.
Proxima Centuri b is thought to be habitable? So to recap: someone wants to spend untold trillions of dollars building a massive spaceship, that will carry some two-thousand people, on a four-hundred year long, one way voyage, to a planet thought to be habitable?
Am I the only one who sees a problem with this?
Wouldn’t we first want to be one-hundred percent certain the planet in question, Proxima Centuri b, was in fact habitable, in Earth-analog fashion, before even drawing up blueprints for the vessel? Apparently not. Chrysalis‘ designers appear to be so confident Proxima Centuri b is fit for human habitation, they’re laying on shuttles to get people on the ground.
Doubtless passengers are relieved they’re not required to parachute to the surface.
Proxima Centuri b was discovered in 2016. The body is a super-Earth, meaning it is larger than our home planet, but still smaller than the likes of Uranus or Neptune. In addition, the planet is located in what is considered to be Proxima Centuri’s habitable zone. Planets within a star’s habitable, or Goldilocks zone, as Earth is in the Sun’s, are generally deemed to be conducive to life. Temperatures are neither too hot, nor too cold, and water can exist in liquid form.
But talk of Goldilocks zones usually applies more to G-type main-sequence stars, or yellow dwarfs, such as the Sun. Proxima Centuri is a red dwarf star, a rather different kettle of fish. I’m not even sure the term habitable zone should be uttered in the same sentence as red dwarfs.
I’ve written about these stars before. They fascinate me. As mentioned, one is the star nearest to us. They also live for trillions of years (compared to billions for many other stars, including the Sun). Red dwarfs will probably be the last stars shining in the universe.
But, as I’ve said previously, they’re not all that life-friendly, particularly for human life. As I’ve written this before, I’ll be succinct. Planets in the supposed habitable zones of red dwarfs, would be — on account of their relative closeness to the star — tidally locked. One side of the planet forever faces the star, and bakes, while the other, cloaked in perpetual darkness, freezes. Most hospitable.
Red dwarfs also emit powerful flares. The outlook would not be good for the inhabitants of a planet in the path of one of these stellar outbursts. Proxima Centuri b may be possessed of some sort of atmosphere, and water might be present, but the planet is no Earth.
What if, on reaching the distant planet, those aboard Chrysalis find it to be completely uninhabitable? Would they be able to return to Earth? No, because the journey is one way. Passengers would be on a multi-century trip to their deaths.
Of course, the Chrysalis project is hypothetical, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t merit in the idea. If the vessel is ever to be constructed, a more suitable destination planet, not just one thought to be habitable, needs to be chosen.
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astronomy, design, red dwarf, science
Time may be an artificial construct, but it feels awfully authentic
3 July 2025
Managing time when time doesn’t exist, from the Multiverse Employee Handbook, a science comedy podcast, produced by Robb Corrigan:
The real productivity crisis emerged when physicists tried merging Einstein’s relativity with quantum mechanics. They discovered something that would terrify any time management consultant: the Wheeler-DeWitt equation — quantum gravity’s fundamental mathematics — contains absolutely no time variable.
So maybe time doesn’t exist in the realm of physics, but who cares about physics when you’re running late for that train you must be on. Or when the hours and minutes are dissolving ahead of a critical deadline. Or anything else for that matter. And if time in fact does not exist, that’s not a problem either, the universe, and us along with it, carry on as usual.
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humour, physics, podcasts, science
One for coffee drinkers: caffeine might slow cellular ageing
2 July 2025
This from recent research at the Cellular Ageing and Senescence laboratory at Queen Mary University of London’s Centre for Molecular Cell Biology:
In new research published by scientists studying fission yeast — a single-celled organism surprisingly similar to human cells — researchers found that caffeine affects aging by tapping into an ancient cellular energy system.
Always enjoy coffee in moderation…
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Planet Nine may not exist, but Dwarf Planet Nine might
26 June 2025
The apparent discovery of an extremely distant dwarf-planet, known as 2017 OF201, might put paid to the speculated existence of a likewise far-flung Neptune-size planet, often referred to as Planet Nine, says Isaac Schultz, writing for Gizmodo:
Which brings us, inevitably, to Planet Nine, the theorized distant world posited as a gravitational explanation for the strange clustering of objects in the Kuiper Belt. Other ideas have been floated to explain the phenomenon — such as a ring of debris exerting gravitational influence, or even a primordial black hole — but nothing grips our human fascination like a distant planet, so far away from our solar system’s other worlds that it’s never been observed.
Unexpected variations in the orbits of numerous dwarf-planets and various other bodies, known as Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNO), usually located beyond the orbit of Pluto, have long puzzled scientists and astronomers. This has lead some of them to believe the solar system hosts a larger planet, which they call Planet Nine.
This body possibly orbits the Sun elliptically, at an average distance of two-hundred-and-fifty astronomical units (AU), or thirty-seven billion KM (compared with an average six billion or so KM for Pluto), and takes ten to twenty thousand years to do so. But its theorised presence might account for the odd orbital behaviour of some TNOs.
But this is where things become intriguing. A 2013 NASA survey of the area surrounding the solar system, apparently detected no indication of any reasonably large planetary bodies beyond the orbit of Pluto. This despite the ability of their technology to perceive Saturn-size objects a tenth of a light year distant.
This discovery of 2017 OF201, which leisurely orbits the Sun once every twenty-five thousand years, and ventures as far away as sixteen-hundred AU, makes sense in this context. It also opens the door to locating potentially many more highly distant dwarf-planets.
The presence of 2017 OF201 however does not completely eliminate the possibility Planet Nine exists, the 2013 NASA study notwithstanding. Sihao Cheng, who participated in finding 2017 OF201, still hopes Planet Nine turns out to be there.
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