Search results for cosmological principle

Astrobiology Sep 29, 2023

We should find extraterrestrial life within 60 light-years if Earth is average, professor claims

In 1960, while preparing for the first meeting on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), legendary astronomer and SETI pioneer Dr. Frank Drake unveiled his probabilistic equation for estimating the number of ...

Astrobiology Sep 26, 2023

Why build megastructures? Just move planets around to make habitable worlds

In 1960, Freeman Dyson proposed how advanced civilizations could create megastructures that enclosed their system, allowing them to harness all of their star's energy and multiplying the habitable space they could occupy. ...

General Physics Sep 25, 2023

Why Einstein must be wrong: In search of the theory of gravity

Einstein's theory of gravity—general relativity—has been very successful for more than a century. However, it has theoretical shortcomings. This is not surprising: the theory predicts its own failure at spacetime singularities ...

Astronomy Aug 8, 2023

Smoking-gun evidence for modified gravity at low acceleration from Gaia observations of wide binary stars

A new study reports conclusive evidence for the breakdown of standard gravity in the low acceleration limit from a verifiable analysis of the orbital motions of long-period, widely separated, binary stars, usually referred ...

Cell & Microbiology Jul 27, 2023

Your genetic code has lots of 'words' for the same thing—information theory may help explain the redundancies

Nearly all life, from bacteria to humans, uses the same genetic code. This code acts as a dictionary, translating genes into the amino acids used to build proteins. The universality of the genetic code indicates a common ...

Astronomy Jul 20, 2023

Galaxy J1135 reveals its water map

Water is essential for life, but for astrophysicists, it represents something more. Researchers look at water in galaxies, its distribution and in particular its changes of state from ice to vapor, as important markers indicating ...

Astronomy Jun 29, 2023

Cosmological models are built on a simple, century-old idea, but new observations demand a radical rethink

Our ideas about the universe are based on a century-old simplification known as the cosmological principle. It suggests that when averaged on large scales, the Cosmos is homogeneous and matter is distributed evenly throughout.

Astronomy Jun 27, 2023

Gravity and dark matter, a bond beyond distances

Isaac Newton formulated his theory of gravity as an action at a distance: a planet instantly feels the influence of another celestial body, no matter the distance between them. This characteristic motivated Albert Einstein ...

Astronomy May 10, 2023

Stephen Hawking and I created his final theory of the cosmos—here's what it reveals about the origins of time and life

The late physicist Stephen Hawking first asked me to work with him to develop "a new quantum theory of the Big Bang" in 1998. What started out as a doctoral project evolved over some 20 years into an intense collaboration ...

General Physics Mar 23, 2023

The multiverse: How we're tackling the challenges facing the theory

The idea of a multiverse consisting of "parallel universes" is a popular science fiction trope, recently explored in the Oscar-winning movie "Everything Everywhere All At Once." However, it is within the realm of scientific ...

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