Brian Koberlein
Can Many-Worlds Theory Rescue Us From Boltzmann Brains?
The idea that we can trust what we observe leads to the paradoxical conclusion that we can’t trust what we observe.
New Evidence for the Strange Idea that the Universe Is a Hologram
One of the great mysteries of modern cosmology is how our universe can be so thermally uniform—the vast cosmos is filled with the lingering heat of the Big Bang. Over time, it has cooled to a few degrees above absolute zero, but it can still be seen in the faint glow of microwave radiation, known […]
What It Means to Live in a Holographic Cosmos
When you look in the mirror, the image you see looks a lot like you—not exactly the same, because when you raise your right hand, your mirror-self raises its left. What’s more, the mirror image is merely an assemblage of reflected light, without a physical body behind it. Despite these differences, you can see an […]
How the Universe Made the Stuff That Made Us
Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . When our Universe was in its infancy, the only element it contained was hydrogen, the simplest one—not nearly enough by itself to create interesting things like planets and people. By the time things cooled sufficiently for the single proton in each hydrogen […]
Public, Pointed Scientific Spats—Feature, Not Bug
Galileo is the archetypal paradigm-busting scientist telling truth to hidebound authorities.Felix Parra: Galileo Demonstrating the New Astronomical Theories at the University of Padua, 1873. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . There’s a common trope in science in which a lone genius stands defiantly against a backward, close-minded establishment. Galileo’s Sun-centric […]
What It Means to Live in a Holographic Universe
When you look in the mirror, the image you see looks a lot like you—not exactly the same, because when you raise your right hand, your mirror-self raises its left. What’s more, the mirror image is merely an assemblage of reflected light, without a physical body behind it. Despite these differences, you can see an […]
We Bathe Always in the Glow of the Big Bang
A map of the cosmic microwave background from the COBE satellite.NASA Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . It was born when the Universe was just 10 human heartbeats old. A small burst of electromagnetic energy known as a photon. A primordial particle of light. At that time the Universe […]