Tag: Cosmology

BICEP2 team publishes results, backpedals on certainty

The BICEP2 team have officially published their results.  They had announced to much fanfare back in March, that they had detected primordial gravitational waves, and hence cosmic inflation.  But the results have increasingly been met with doubt, primarily centered on the possibility of interstellar dust causing the observed results. From a New Scientist article on the published paper: It … Continue reading BICEP2 team publishes results, backpedals on certainty →

Pseudophysics: The New High Priesthood

Wow.  Somewhat in balance to yesterday's reblog of part one of Coel Hellier's post defending multiverse theories as scientific, here's Amir Aczel skewering many of the proponents of multiverses and other untestable cosmological theories.  He takes aim at Brian Greene, Max Tegmark, Lawrence Krauss, and others, for presenting metaphysical assertions as science. The universe is a marvelous … Continue reading Pseudophysics: The New High Priesthood →

The Big Bang’s Identity Crisis – The Nature of Reality

Think of the Big Bang, and you probably imagine a moment in time when matter, energy and space itself all burst into existence at once. Yet many astrophysicists now believe that the “Big Bang” was actually two distinct events: first the inaugural instant of space and time, and second the generation of most of the … Continue reading The Big Bang’s Identity Crisis – The Nature of Reality →

Max Tegmark and MinutePhysics on the mathematical universe

This is a subject that we've discussed repeatedly here, so I thought you might find Tegmark's narration of this video interesting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGG4HmlotJE I'm pretty sure that mathematics are not only something humans created, that they are based on relations we observe in the world, but beyond that, I remain largely agnostic on the Mathematical Universe Hypothesis … Continue reading Max Tegmark and MinutePhysics on the mathematical universe →

Max Tegmark posts his chapter on cosmic inflation online

If you enjoyed my write up on Tegmark's Level II multiverse, you might enjoy this guest post that he makes on Sean Carroll's blog, which includes a link to the chapter on inflation from his book, including those visual aids I referenced! Since the BICEP2 breakthrough is generating such huge interest in inflation, I’ve decided … Continue reading Max Tegmark posts his chapter on cosmic inflation online →

Neil deGrasse Tyson in ‘The Inexplicable Universe’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgo1uObQ3Js If you're enjoying the Cosmos series, you might enjoy these lectures by Neil deGrasse Tyson, which I discovered yesterday is now on Netflix.  The lectures are fairly far ranging covering things like string theory, dark matter, dark energy, gravitational anomalies, and many other things. If you're well read in science, a lot of this might … Continue reading Neil deGrasse Tyson in ‘The Inexplicable Universe’ →

Visualization of ancient cosmological models

Just to keep the discussion of the posts I'm doing on cosmology in context: As part of Topoi 1, Group-D, Sebastian Szczepanski and I developed software for the visualization of ancient cosmological theories. These included the 4th cent. BCE planetary models of Eudoxus, Aristotle, and Calippus, as well as the basic planetary models of Ptolemy’s Almagest. … Continue reading Visualization of ancient cosmological models →

Tegmark’s Level I Multiverse: infinite space

I've just finished reading Max Tegmark's latest book, 'Our Mathematical Universe', about his views on multiverses and the ultimate nature of reality.  This is the first in a series of posts that I plan to do on it.  Tegmark postulates four levels of multiverse.  This post is about the first, and simplest version, the Level I … Continue reading Tegmark’s Level I Multiverse: infinite space →