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BREAKING NEWS

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E=HP^2
Jan 5, 2012
HuffPost Science launches today with a post by FQXi's fearless (co-)leader, Max Tegmark, talking about the Big Snap. Great taste! Here's Tegmark's video talk on the topic.

ICGC2011
Dec 12, 2011
FQXi is proud to support the 7th International Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology, 14 - 19 December, Goa, India; organized by the ICTS at the Tata Institute in Mumbai.

FQXi Makes it into Forbes...
Oct 6, 2011
(...but not the rich list!). FQXi's Stephon Alexander's musings on faster-than-light neutrinos are quoted in Forbes. For his full thoughts, check out his blog post and read about his FQXi-funded research on neutrinos and the universe.

 
NEW IN BLOGS

Hanny's Voorwerp, and Other Year-End Goodies
By WILLIAM OREM
The new year is upon us: first step—according to the Gregorian calendar, anyway—of our next long loop around the sun. Time to look back over some of the most interesting Foundational stories from the previous trip.

Here, in no order, are five...

On the Origins of Quantum Correlations
By JOY CHRISTIAN
John Stewart Bell is undoubtedly one of the icons of contemporary physics. His name has become inseparable from the notion of quantum non-locality, however, Bell himself always stressed that it was Einstein--together with Podolsky and Rosen--who...

Greetings from Goa
By BRENDAN FOSTER
Greetings from Goa, India, on the shores of the Arabian Sea. I am here at the International Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology, hosted by the Indian Association for General Relativity and Gravitation and the International Centre for...




WINNING ESSAYS

Is Reality Digital or Analog?
By Jarmo Matti Mäkelä
A report of a discussion with Isaac Newton.

Physics and the Integers
By David Tong
I argue that the integers are emergent. If we are looking to build the future laws of physics, discrete mathematics is no better a starting point than the rules of scrabble.

Quantum Graphenity
By Tobias Fritz
To a certain extent, this problem can be overcome by the simulation of models for fundamental physics by other physical systems. Here I focus on graphene as a particularly fascinating example of such a simulator.




FEATURED FQXi MEMBER VIDEOS

video How Do You Make a Cosmos? (1 of 2)
- Alan Guth
video What is a Theory of Everything?
- Wojciech H. Zurek
video Is Time Travel Possible?
- Seth Lloyd




FORUM UPDATES

FQXi Essay Contest - Is Reality Digital or Analog?
A Method to Measure Consciousness, and...
By TOMMY GILBERTSON
Essay Abstract

Abstract: The role consciousness plays in the classic Young's Double-Slit Experiment (YDS) is represented Symbolically by Boolean Logic, and the resulting equations manipulated in order to interpret the results and clarify the...

Ultimate Reality
The limits of mathematics
By IAN DURHAM
I realize this forum hasn't gotten much action lately, but I'm hoping enough people pop on here that I get some feedback on this (particularly some of the membership who may have worked on or thought about related problems).

What I am...

FQXi Essay Contest - Is Reality Digital or Analog?
Reality Was Born Analog But Will Digital Die? by...
By ALAN LOWEY
Essay Abstract

An analysis based on the imagery of the creation of structure from the starting point of a void. A visual representation of spinning threads of energy which emerge and then grow into ‘spinning threads of spinning threads’. Two...

 
NEW ARTICLES


The Cosmic Family Tree
By KATE BECKER • Jan 6, 2012
Mapping the ancestral history of spacetime in an effort to unite quantum mechanics and general relativity.
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (15 posts)

Behind the Shadows
By BOB SWARUP • Dec 15, 2011
Imagining Schrödinger’s cat peering out from behind a black hole could lead to a theory of quantum gravity.
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (3 posts)

Why Did Nature Choose Quantum Theory?
By MAXIMILIAN SCHLOSSHAUER • Nov 21, 2011
Schrödinger’s cat may help reveal while some physical theories are better at describing reality than others.
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (24 posts)

Video Article: Through a Glass Darkly
By ANIL ANANTHASWAMY • Nov 1, 2011
Eight-dimensional numbers could be needed to handle string-theory’s 10-dimensional physics. This classic article, with new video content, also tackles the mystery of why elementary particles come in families of three—and maybe even how spacetime emerges in 4-dimensions.
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (8 posts)

Video Article: Evolving Time's Arrow
By ANIL ANANTHASWAMY • Oct 11, 2011
Why do we perceive time marching in one direction? In this classic article with new video, Craig Callender combines general relativity, evolutionary biology and cognitive science to bring the physics of time in line with everyday experience.
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (41 posts)

Video Article: The End of the Quantum Road
By BOB SWARUP • Sep 23, 2011
In this classic article, with new video, Caslav Brukner ponders whether we've already found the ultimate theory of nature, without realizing it.
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (30 posts)

Video Article: The Destiny of the Universe
By JULIE REHMEYER • Aug 21, 2011
A radical reformulation of quantum mechanics suggests that the universe has a set destiny and its pre-existing fate reaches back in time to influence the past. This classic article, with new video content, reconsiders the origin of life and dark energy in the new framework.
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (44 posts)

Testing the Multiverse
By MIRIAM FRANKEL • Aug 3, 2011
Does the CMB sky show signatures of other universes?
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (25 posts)

De-Spooking Quantum Mechanics
By GRAEME STEMP-MORLOCK • Jul 13, 2011
Einstein wouldn’t have found entanglement so strange, if he’d thrown out a key pre-twentieth-century misconception.
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (40 posts)

The End of Time
By KATE BECKER • Jun 28, 2011
Our universe may be housed inside a black hole. If so, we can map out how time—and physics—will end.
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (87 posts)

Readers' Choice: The Crystallizing Universe
By KATE BECKER • Jun 2, 2011
Explaining how time flows as the present “crystallizes” from the past. The spacetime model could save the concept that the future is open and free will exists—solving the mystery of how photons can time travel along the way.
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (94 posts)

Breaking the Universe's Speed Limit
By GRAEME STEMP-MORLOCK • Apr 21, 2011
If we give up the idea that time exists and the speed of light is constant at the fundamental level, then we could find a theory of quantum gravity.
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (84 posts)

Real-Time Physics
By KATE BECKER • Apr 4, 2011
Many physicists argue that time is an illusion. Lee Smolin begs to differ.
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (148 posts)

Readers' Choice: Out of the Darkness
By BOB SWARUP • Mar 15, 2011
Deciding the winner as dark matter, dark energy, and general relativity slug it out with rival theories.
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (25 posts)

A Whole New Quantum Ball Game
By SOPHIE HEBDEN • Feb 25, 2011
Searching for the boundary between the quantum and classical worlds, with microscopic polystyrene balls.
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (11 posts)

Chaos, Consciousness, and the Cosmos
By MIRIAM FRANKEL • Jan 19, 2011
Investigating the origin of mind and matter in the multiverse.
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (92 posts)


 
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