Quantum Reality: What We Know And Speculate About

"Watch some of the biggest names in physics debate the mysteries of the quantum and its future, including Roger Penrose, Sabine Hossenfelder, Avshalom Elitzur, Michio Kaku, Suchitra Sebastian, Priya Natarajan, Joscha Bach, Erik Verlinde, Hilary Lawson and Bjørn Ekeberg. 

"From string theory to quantum gravity and quantum computers, the quantum discourse is all the buzz in physics and beyond. But what is possible and what is mere fantasy? Can we bring together relativity and quantum mechanics? Will we ever find a unified theory to explain our universe?"

Click on the link below for opinions from the best minds in the field of physics regarding the murky world of quantum:

The Quantum World: Dreams And Delusions

A "Knotty" Subject (But Not Pornography)

"There is an entire branch of math simply devoted to knots – and it has changed the world. We’ll rope you in."

Click on the link below for a fascinating look at a subject that relates to not only math but also chemistry, biology, and physics:

How the Most Useless Branch of Math Could Save Your Life

Space And Time 101

"What is Spacetime? Are space and time the same thing? Space was thought to be nothing, an empty void with no matter in it. In 1908, Hermann Minkowski postulated that time could be thought of as a 4th dimension along with the three dimensions of space. Einstein later showed that this spacetime is a kind of geometry that can bend, affecting the trajectory and passage of time for objects. How can space and time be part of the same canvas? Space is measured in meters, while time is measured in seconds. How are the two interchangeable?"

Click on the link below for a clear, but somewhat counter-intuitive, understanding of how space and time interact:

How Can SPACE and TIME be part of the SAME THING?

Physics And Self-Reflection

"Some physicists are claiming that there is something 'wrong' with our understanding of the universe. Oftentimes, it's just to justify asking for funding for new experiments, a better detector, a new telescope, or a bigger collider, but what if there's something more than that? Do we have evidence of new physics? Or not? In this video, we will look at dark matter and dark energy, quantum gravity, the mass of the Higgs-boson, neutrino masses, and the matter-antimatter asymmetry."

Click on the link below for a critique of the present state of physics from a physicist:

Do we have evidence for new physics?

A Look At Moore's Law

"In the past 10 years or so, tech specialists have repeatedly voiced concerns that the progress of computing power will soon hit the wall. Miniaturization has physical limits, and then what? Have we reached these limits? Is Moore’s law dead? That’s what we’ll talk about today."

Click on the link below for more (no pun intended 😄):

How Dead is Moore's Law?

What Is A Photon?

"“Do photons have mass?' in most textbooks, the answer is no. But is it proven that light does not have any mass? Has anyone every actually confirmed this in a measurement? No. 

"Einstein’s theory of relativity tells us that massless objects always move at the same velocity in a vacuum, which is the speed of light or 299,792,458 m/s. This assumes that the photon is massless. But it doesn’t have to be. We presume that the photon is massless because we have not measured anything faster."

Click on the link below for an "enLIGHTENing" (😄yes, I said that!) video on the subject.

Why No One Knows If Photons Really Are Massless: What If They Aren't?

Entropy 101

 Click on the link below for a video presenting a clear way to understand energy and entropy:

The Most Misunderstood Concept in Physics

How OUR Universe Began

" In the beginning, there was....what? Thankfully Physics can now help us answer that question! But during the 20th Century, there was a debate raging between whether the Universe started in a Big Bang or has existed forever. Thankfully that debate was eventually settled by radio astronomy..."

Click on the link below for the definitive answer to this fundamental question. Unfortunately, it doesn't mention what started it, or if our universe is the only one. THIS question may never be answered.

How did the Universe begin?

What Really Is "Nothing?"

If you follow modern physics deeply, you realize that the definition of "nothing" does not have a consensus. Sabine Hossenfelder is one of the best communicators of physics to the layperson of whom I am aware. Her YouTube Channel, "Science, without the gobbledygook", skeptically looks at the claims of physicists. Click on the link below for her understanding of the reality of "nothing:"

What is "Nothing"?

Evan Buchholzhttps://unsplash.com/@vnbuchholz92.

What Is At The Base Of Reality?

One of the deepest questions within physics is what is at the base of reality. Click on the link below for a video presenting interesting speculation on the matter:

What is the ORIGIN of all MASS in the universe?

Gravity 101

"The General Theory of Relativity tells us gravity is not a force, gravitational fields don't exist. Objects tend to move on straight paths through curved spacetime."

The above statement is a good example of reality/truth being counter-intuitive. Click on the link below for a video of one of the better explanations of gravity. Unfortunately, there are complicated physics formulae that may initially put you off. However, don't get bogged down with them: the presenter is an excellent communicator with excellent visual tools. 

Why Gravity is NOT a Force

More On Quantum Mechanics

"What is the meaning of quantum physics? What does quantum mechanics mean? What is it telling us about the true nature of reality? Are particles at the quantum level fuzzy and spread out, two places at once, or in two different states at once, or affect each other instantly over any distance? Not really. There is no consensus on quantum reality."

In essence, it is weird but supported as real as any other established reality. Click on the link below to go deeper into it:

What is Quantum Mechanics Really Trying To Tell Us About Reality?

Creator: agsandrew | Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Copyright: agsandrew

The Latest On Nuclear Energy

"Is nuclear power good or bad? In this much-asked-for episode I will summarize the most up-to-date numbers on the status of nuclear power and break down its pros and cons. We will also look at what the new technological developments have to offer: molten salt reactors, thorium reactors, and small modular reactors. I learned a lot while working on this video and I hope you find this summary useful."

Click on the link below for the details:

Is Nuclear Power Green

Physicists Demonstrate How Science Works

"For three decades, researchers hunted in vain for new elementary particles that would have explained why nature looks the way it does. As physicists confront that failure, they’re reexamining a longstanding assumption: that big stuff consists of smaller stuff."

Unlike the religious and other pseudoscientists, true scientists are always pushing against the barrier between the known and unknown and the result is new knowledge. Click on the link below for a current example of how scientists work through falsified claims to advance humanity's knowledge and well-being:

Crisis in Particle Physics forces a Rethinking of Nature's Laws

The Multiverse: Another Speculation

"The big bang model has some problems - homogeneity, flatness, and lack of magnetic monopoles.

"Cosmic Inflation occurred when the entire universe shortly after its beginning, expanded exponentially fast for a fraction of a second. One implication of this is that the universe on large scales may not be so homogenous. Inflation could have ended at different times in different places. This would mean that the universe is bigger and more complex than we realize. This concept is called ETERNAL inflation."

Click on the link below for another possibility in support of the multiverse hypothesis:

Why the MULTIVERSE might be REAL: Eternal Inflation

The Multiverse: The Evidence Grows

"The team's model starts the Universe as a multitude of universes. Each universe in this multiverse has a different mass for the Higgs boson – some quite heavy, and some very light.

"Then, the physicists calculated how these universes would evolve over time. They found that universes with heavier Higgs bosons became unstable and collapsed very quickly in a 'big crunch', in a fraction of a second.

"The universes with lighter Higgs bosons survived. Under this scenario, our Universe emerged as perhaps the sole survivor of the catastrophic multiverse crunching, with a very light Higgs boson."

Click on the link below for another hypothesis for the multiverse. Yes, it is not falsifiable at this point, thus, it is not yet accepted science. However, the results of recent experiments point positively to such. Compare this to what theists propose: an unevidenced supernatural being behind it all.

Mind-Bending New Multiverse Scenario Could Explain a Strange Higgs Boson Feature

What Is Time?

 At first thought about the question, most people have quick responses. However, scientists are actually deeply exploring the subject as it is much more complicated than what the average layperson perceives.

Click on the link below for an interesting video presenting one speculation of what time is at its base.

Nobody Knows What Time Really Is. But it might be this - - -

What Is Reality At Its Base?

"By the end of 1905, we had two big new equations in physics. Max Planck’s, Energy equals Planck’s constant times the frequency, and Einstein’s Energy equals the mass times the speed of light squared. A young physicist, Louis Debroglie decided to combined them: MC^2 = hf, Since c and h are constants, if you ignore them, it simplifies to M = f – mass is essentially equal to frequency.

"But how can mass equal frequency because these are two completely different things. Mass is associated with particles. Frequency is associated with a wave."

Click on the link below for a 15-minute video delving into the reality of fundamental physics:

Are Photons & Electrons Particles or Waves?

Even Scientists Can Be Unscientific

"I was asked to write an article addressing the question of whether some research in physics has become too speculative. I did as I was asked, and all seemed fine, until someone on the editorial board of the magazine decided that physicists would be too upset about what I wrote."

Sabine does it again: exposes the human frailty of some fellow physicists, Click on the link below for the details:

Can Physics Be Too Speculative? An Honest Opinion.

Physics Has Hit A Barrier

Since the beginning of modern science, physics has been one of the most prolific and valuable members of the discipline. However, in recent decades, new confirmed findings are few and far between. Click on the link below for a video presenting an opinion of its present status and where future efforts should be focused:

What's wrong with physics?