Time: a glacier, not a stream

Via Sean Carroll: I Tweeted the following inscrutable remark. Probably best left unexplained, but upon reflection I can’t resist. My consciousness freely travels up and down my world line, but sadly it only carries the memories appropriate to the moment it inhabits. The point is that (some) people don’t think about the flow of time [...]

The big questions

Given special relativity, by which events taking place at near-light speeds over nonzero spans of space can be described in multiple, contradictory, but equally correct sequences by various observers in different frames of reference, it might be a meaningless question to ask whether Han shot first.

What if you’re somebody’s shadow?

Two days ago, I discussed several theories which call for universes parallel to our own. Brian Greene, writing in Discover Magazine, floats another one even queerer than the three I mentioned. Whereas the other worlds in my last post were causally isolated from our own, this hypothesis posits that all the events in our universe are [...]

Stock in Spinoza

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, writing in Prospect: Thinking of buying shares in a great philosopher? The first question you need to ask is whether you’re interested in long or short-term investment. If you are looking long-term, then prepare yourself for serious scholarship. Alternatively, short-term investment could merely involve comparing the battle over women’s hemlines on catwalks [...]

Astronomical survey seems to confirm existence of dark energy

Via BBC News: First results from a major astronomical survey using a cutting-edge technique appear to have confirmed the existence of mysterious dark energy. Dark energy makes up some 74% of the Universe and its existence would explain why the Universe appears to be expanding at an accelerating rate. The finding was based on studies [...]

After the Standard Model?

The Standard Model (SM) is the current best theory for the explanation of subatomic particles. It yeilds some of the most accurate and precise predictions of any mathematical-physical theory, but is still problematic and incomplete.  Apparently, to those whose eyes are trained to recognize mathematical aesthetics, the SM’s equations are contrived and fugly, whereas most great physics equations are elegant in their [...]

The heart of dark energy

Via Science News: New evidence bolsters the case that a bizarre form of energy is uniformly accelerating the expansion of the universe, refuting one of the alternative models developed by researchers who refuse to accept the idea. The new study, which measures the present-day expansion of the universe to unprecedented accuracy, also suggests that the [...]

NZ physicists mathematically describe quantum entanglement in time

Via PhysOrg: In “ordinary” quantum entanglement, two particles possess properties that are inherently linked with each other, even though the particles may be spatially separated by a large distance. Now, physicists S. Jay Olson and Timothy C. Ralph from the University of Queensland have shown that it’s possible to create entanglement between regions of spacetime [...]

Yet another posthumous volume of Vonnegut fiction

Since April 11, 2007, Kurt Vonnegut has been in a bad state. (So it goes.) But in the years between November 1922 and 2006, he’s alive and well–relatively speaking–as well as he ever was, as well as a depressive and chronic smoker could be. If we could see into the fourth dimension, we would see [...]