Cosmology

The Nobel prize winner who thinks we have the universe all wrong

There was really good article in the Atlantic recently. It was written by Ross Anderson, and it was called The Nobel Prize Winner who thinks we have the universe all wrong. It concerns cosmologist Adam Riess¹, who shared the 2011 Nobel prize in physics with Brian Schmidt and Saul Perlmutter. The prize was awarded for "the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae". Adam Riess illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani / The Atlantic. Sources: Janerik Henriksson / AFP /Getty; Getty.…

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Big Bang theory is wrong, claim scientists

There was an interesting cosmology article in the Daily Telegraph last week. It was by science editor Sarah Knapton, and it was called Big Bang theory is wrong, claim scientists. I was pleased to see it, because in my humble opinion cosmology articles don’t feature in our newspapers enough these days. Clearly I’m not the only one who thinks like that, because as I speak there are 2,580 comments. Image from The Daily Telegraph, caption: A black hole pictured by the Spitzer space telescope. Credit: AFP/Getty…

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The Standard Model of Cosmology is wrong on multiple counts

The Standard Model of Cosmology is also called the Concordance model, which means the currently accepted model. Another name for it is the Lambda-CDM model, where Lambda is the cosmological constant, and CDM is an acronym for cold dark matter. In a nutshell, the Standard Model of Cosmology says the universe started with the Big Bang, which was followed by a very rapid expansion called inflation. After this came the formation of photons and leptons plus other particles, then hydrogen and helium, then stars and galaxies…

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The James Webb Space Telescope and the massive early galaxies

As I was saying last time, there was a interesting news article recently. I saw it in The Telegraph myself. It concerned observations of massive early galaxies by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Written by Joe Pinkstone, the article was dated 26th August 2024, and was called How scientists used black holes to solve mystery of earliest galaxies. Pinkstone told us that early galaxies had long been thought to contain relatively few stars, and so wouldn’t be particularly big or bright. However when the JWST…

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Quanta magazine

I've referred to Quanta Magazine articles in a number of my previous posts. For example in Quantum computing and the quantum quacks I referred to a 2019 article by Natalie Wolchover called How Space and Time Could Be a Quantum Error-Correcting Code. In The black hole charlatans I referred to a 2020 article by George Musser called The Most Famous Paradox in Physics Nears Its End. In Quantum entanglement is scientific fraud I referred to a 2022 article by Natalie Wolchover called Physicists Create a Wormhole…

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Breakthroughs in physics 2023

So, how has physics been this past year? Let’s start by taking a look at Physics World. In an article dated 7th December 2023, online editor Hamish Johnston said this: “Physics World is delighted to announce its top 10 Breakthroughs of the Year for 2023, which ranges from research in astronomy and medical physics to quantum science, atomic physics and more”. He went on to say the winner will be revealed on 14th December. Sounds good. So, Hamish, what have you got? 1.  Growing electrodes inside living…

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The James Webb Space Telescope

I’m sorry I haven’t posted for months. Part of the reason is that the day job has been extremely tough this year. It’s a lot to do with Covid. As you will know if you’ve applied for a driving licence or booked a flight, a lot of organisations are not functioning effectively right now. That’s due to past layoffs, or staff going part time, or retiring, or “working from home”. In addition, training is more difficult when people are not in the office, and it all…

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The gamma bomb

I’ve always been interested in antigravity. It started when I was when I was six, when Fireball XL5 was on TV. Of course, the spaceship itself was a rail-launched rocket with wings. But Steve Zodiac and crew had a "gravity activator" for artificial gravity inside the ship, plus hover bikes. Hover bikes were a recurring feature in Gerry and Silvia Anderson’s futuristic programmes. I think it was because they were cool, and because it wasn’t easy to make those marionettes walk. Gravity generators or compensators were also…

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We have to talk about LIGO

I’ve mentioned LIGO a couple of times in passing. You know, LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory. Rainer Weiss of MIT had a lot to do with the idea back in the 1960s, as did Kip Thorne of Caltech. Things got serious in 1980 when the US National Science Foundation funded prototypes at Caltech and MIT, and funded Weiss to lead a study into a full size interferometer. Construction eventually started in 1994 and was finished in 1997. Observations eventually started in 2002 and stopped…

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Misconceptions skewered

I was surfing the web the other day, and I came across Sean Carroll’s Preposterous Universe blog. There's a post on there called True Facts About Cosmology (or, Misconceptions Skewered). I thought it looked interesting, because that’s my kind of thing. I do so dislike all the popscience and the lies to children, and it pleases me to see somebody else trying to put the record straight. But has he? I thought I’d take a look and give my opinion. Carroll leads in with something about…

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