Lifeboat Foundation

A new measurement of how fast space is expanding disagrees with estimates based on the early universe, potentially pointing toward a break from the standard model of physics.

By Clara Moskowitz on April 11, 2016.

High-profile physicists and philosophers gathered to debate whether we are real or virtual—and what it means either way.

By Clara Moskowitz on April 7, 2016.

Travel to the past is probably impossible. But to the future? That’s a different story. Cathal O’Connell considers the feasibility of physics.

In 2009 the British physicist Stephen Hawking held a party for time travellers — the twist was he sent out the invites a year later. (No guests showed up).

Dark matter’s effect on stellar streams should be measurable, says astrophysicist.

Introducing a slow-light medium into an optical microresonator extends the lifetime of a photon circulating in the device by several orders of magnitude.

For info about divesting from nuclear weapons companies, go to http://responsibleinvest.org/

Thanks to the Future of Life Institute for helping support this video http://www.futureoflife.org (in particular, thanks to Max Tegmark for guest narrating and Meia Chita-Tegmark for her feedback)

Continue reading “Why You Should Care About Nukes” »

The EMPT thruster, funded by NASA, is a 1 kW-class RMF thruster, operates on the same physics principles as the ELF thruster. This device, less than 4 inches in diameter, has proven that pulsed inductive technolgoies can be succesfully miniaturized. Indeed, this thruster has demonstrated operation from 0.5 to 5 Joules, as well as the first pulsed inductive steady state operation. The EMPT has demonstrated greater than 1E8 continuous plasma discharges.

Are parallel universes real?
Right now there might be a whole other universe where instead of brown hair you have red hair, or a universe where you’re a classical pianist, not an engineer. In fact, an infinite number of versions of you may exist in an infinite number of other universes.

The idea sounds like science fiction, but multiverse theories — especially those that are actually testable — are gaining traction among physicists. Here are three of the most compelling theories:

If the universe is infinite, multiple universes probably exist.

Continue reading “Are parallel universes real?” »

The black holes that kicked off the first detection of gravitational waves seem to be the right size and frequency to be long-sought primordial black holes.