NEW IN BLOGS

Shutdown of the LHC, by Kevin Black
By ZEEYA MERALI
As the LHC supposedly gears up, Harvard physicist Kevin Black, based at CERN, investigates rumors that the particle accelerator may, in fact, soon be shut down—by ripples from the future.

From Kevin Black:

I came across a bizarre paper...

Astrotheology: Do Aliens Have Their Own Jesus? Are...
By ZEEYA MERALI
Yesterday I attended a meeting at the Royal Society in London about how the discovery of extra-terrestrial intelligence would affect people and society, and was introduced to a whole new discipline: astrotheology. A big talking point at the meeting...

The Beautiful Truth
By WILLIAM OREM
My taste in painting runs toward the abstract. Not everyone’s first choice, I understand, but one that never had to be “sold” to me; I seem to have been born with an intuitive appreciation of large-scale gestural expressionism. I see a quality that I...

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FEATURED FQXi MEMBER VIDEOS

	Is Time Travel Possible? - Seth Lloyd
	Why is the Universe Expanding - Alan Guth
	How Vast is the Cosmos? (2 of 2) - Alan Guth

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FORUM UPDATES

Ultimate Reality
Wave function collapse demystified
By A. GARRETT LISI
There has always been an aura of mystical speculation surrounding quantum mechanics and the role of consciousness. The interpretation of wave function collapse (usually referred to as "the measurement problem") seems to lie at the heart of it. So,...

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...

Ultimate Reality
Understanding, artificial intelligence, and so...
By IAN DURHAM
In the discussion over the nature of mathematics, one interesting side-argument that recently started was over the idea of "understanding." What does it take to really understand something? The answer is not as simple as you'd think. In fact it is...

 

NEW ARTICLES


Ripping Apart Einstein
By BOB SWARUP • Mar 7, 2010
Cutting the threads of the spacetime fabric and reinstating the "aether" could lead to a theory of quantum gravity.
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Readers' Choice: Much Ado About Nothing
By BOB SWARUP • Feb 19, 2010
Does the vacuum regenerate itself to fill the gaps as spacetime is pulled apart? Could a growing vacuum explain dark energy?
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Classic Article: Building a Better Black Hole
By SCOTT DODD • Jan 29, 2010
FQXi essay contest winner Louis Crane explains how artificial black holes might have controlled our universe’s past and could direct humanity’s future, in this classic article from 2007.
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Editor's Choice: Taming Infinity
By ANIL ANANTHASWAMY • Jan 10, 2010
General relativity and quantum mechanics could be perfectly compatible—as long as you know how to handle infinity, that is.
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Readers' Choice: True Lies: Why Mathematics is an Illusion
By SCOTT DODD • Nov 30, 2009
To find a theory of quantum gravity we may have to look through a different logical lens, abandoning conceptions of "truth" and "falsehood" and crossing over to a new "mathematical universe."
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Editor's Choice: The Evolution of Reality
By ANIL ANANTHASWAMY • Nov 10, 2009
How natural selection could explain one of the biggest conundrums of quantum mechanics: The emergence of objective reality.
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Readers' Choice: Time at the Event Horizon
By ANIL ANANTHASWAMY • Oct 29, 2009
Stick a clock next to a black hole to understand quantum gravity and the nature of time itself.
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Editor's Choice: Tying Up the Multiverse with String
By WILLIAM OREM • Oct 11, 2009
Why string theory and cosmology are a marriage made in heaven.
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Readers' Choice: Taking on the 10-D Universe with 8-D Math
By ANIL ANANTHASWAMY • Sep 13, 2009
A bizarre set of of 8-dimensional numbers could explain how to handle string-theory's extra dimensions, why elementary particles come in families of three—and maybe even how spacetime emerges in 4-dimensions.
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Editor's Choice: The Non-Expanding Universe
By KATE BECKER • Aug 25, 2009
Time doesn’t exist. The universe isn’t really expanding. And if you want a theory of quantum gravity, you need to look back to the man who inspired Einstein.
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Readers' Choice: Journeying Through the Quantum Froth
By MARC KAUFMAN • Aug 8, 2009
Are cosmic rays probing the quantum nature of spacetime? The architect of "doubly special relativity" thinks so—and he's on the hunt for "theories of (not) everything" that could help explain how.
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Editor's Choice: The Black Hole and the Babel Fish
By KATE BECKER • Jul 21, 2009
Uniting string theory and condensed matter—with a black hole as a universal translator.
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