Physics has two great theories, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Each does very well in its domain. That is nice but plainly isn’t real. Each is fundamentally at odds with the other. And neither of them works at all with the conditions that existed when the universe began. How can we find a single theory […]
Tag Archives: big bang
New Light On the Large-Scale Structure of the Universe Rethinking the origin of supermassive black holes
Quadrillions of galaxies make up some structures in the universe. How did such structures arise? How do the galaxies that they are made of grow? As Winston Churchill said of Russia, this is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Now primordial black holes offer us new hope of an answer. What is […]
The Dark Matter Mystery Is Solved! LIGO’s observations show mid-sized primordial black holes are not improbable.
For years Dark Matter has confronted physics with a massive mystery. A recent article describes it as ‘the invisible substance that astronomers believe accounts for about 80% of the stuff in the universe.’ But what is it? This question has physicists searching for obscure new particles with the world’s largest machine, the Large Hadron Collider. […]
What Made the Big Bang Big? What Made the Big Bang Bang? A radical rethinking of our understanding of the universe
Two weeks ago we took a look at a question from systems engineer Muralidharan Thiyagarajan. Referring to the observation that space everywhere is expanding, he asks: ‘What creates the space?’ My answer is: At the Planck level (named for German physicist Max Planck who first described it) where space is made of incredibly tiny quanta, […]
A Cosmic Puzzle Provides Insights into New Physics
A new cosmic contradiction is begging for an explanation. We’ve known for years that space is expanding. Now new measurements of the rate at which it is expanding seem to differ from previous ones based on the standard cosmological model. New physics often comes from measurements that don’t fit theory. Here is my take on […]
LIGO’s Tiny Twitch is a Big Deal
It may be the top science story of this century so far (though I hope an even bigger one is coming): Physicists detected gravitational waves; you can hear them here. This discovery has profound implications for the future of cosmology. It will affect our lives in ways we cannot yet conceive. It was a long […]
The Shifting Shape
Reader Stevo asks a deep question: ‘If space is granular and Planck size is the shortest “length” then what geometric “shape” is a single Planck “thingie”?’ Geometry studies size and shape. Last week we saw Bernhard Riemann in 1856 divining how to do geometry in either of two different kinds of space: continuous space and […]
The Point of the Universe
A new understanding of the universe is wending its way into our world. What is it? Where does it come from? First let’s look at the old understanding. The Big Bang is the standard model of cosmology. It is based on general relativity and on evidence that space itself is expanding. It projects this picture […]
Trips in Space and Time
Physics has an ongoing obsession with time. Some of the most important discoveries about time have been made with so-called thought experiments. Gedankenexperimenten, as Albert Einstein called them, have advantages. They need not be practical. They use no apparatus. Anyone can play. Many people have heard of the so-called twin paradox. It’s a Gedankenexperiment.You travel […]