Mar 13, 2026 07:59 PM
Quantum life
https://oxsci.org/quantum-life/
INTRO: Quantum physics and biology may seem worlds apart, yet growing evidence suggests they are more deeply intertwined than we ever imagined....
A quirk of relativity is the closest thing to achieving immortality
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/...mortality/
KEY POINTS: No matter who, what, or where you are, or how fast you travel, time will always travel at the same rate for you, the observer: at the rate of one second per second, always, and under all circumstances. However, by boosting yourself to near-light speeds, time will pass for the rest of the Universe more quickly than it will for you, enabling you to observe all of cosmic history unfold before you die. By leveraging a few tricks, like becoming a photon or experiencing gravitational time dilation, it may seem possible to endure permanently, but that’s only a trick of perspective. In the end, all will succumb to time’s inevitable passage... (MORE - details)
6 freaky particles that could fix physics—if they exist
https://gizmodo.com/6-freaky-particles-t...2000732052
INTRO: For all practical purposes, the Standard Model of particle physics is almost perfect. The tried-and-true framework predicts the behavior of particles with chilling accuracy—but most physicists also agree that it’s far from complete.
For instance, the mathematical framework of the model doesn’t play nice with general relativity—another “nearly perfect” theory—particularly with the Big Bang or black holes. The model also fails to address several unsolved mysteries in physics concerning widely accepted ideas like neutrino oscillations, matter-antimatter symmetry, or dark matter and dark energy.
An entire field dedicated to this very disparity, unsurprisingly called “physics beyond the Standard Model,” focuses on the theory’s gaps while offering alternatives. Often, this means physicists will come up with new particles to supplement those known to exist. These hypothetical particles are, well, hypothetical, but that doesn’t mean they’ll forever be out of reach. After all, it was only in 1897 that humanity discovered the electron and the Higgs boson as late as 2012.
Read on for some popular hypothetical particles that could fix physics—if they exist... (MORE - details)
Where some see strings, she sees a space-time made of fractals
https://www.quantamagazine.org/where-som...-20260311/
EXCERPT: So, the approach we use with most of the forces is called quantum field theory. It assumes the universe is full of quantum fields. Fields have ripples that manifest as pointlike particles. These particles move through a continuous space-time and interact via forces.
Ultimately the problem is that if we try to treat quantum gravity as a fluctuating quantum field in this most straightforward way, then this approach does not work.
Very roughly, for a well-understood force like electromagnetism, we need to consider fluctuations in the field at all scales. And these fluctuations never stop coming as you zoom in. They act like virtual particles with higher and higher energies. We know how to account for the effects of these high-energy virtual particles in our calculations: The intensity of the force changes, but that’s it.
But when you try to add gravity, which Albert Einstein linked with the structure of space-time, the fluctuations become problematic. At shorter distances, the higher-energy virtual particles interact in new and different ways. We can’t account for these ever-changing effects, so quantum field theory fails to predict what will happen at those tiny scales.
It tells us that something new happens as we zoom in. And I would say there are roughly three lines of thinking as to what that might be. One is that maybe quantum field theory breaks down, full stop. The objects are not points, in the way that we think of elementary particles as points. Instead, they become stringy. That’s string theory. To this day we call it the OMG plot. It was just so mind-blowing to us, that this idea really works out in a quantitative way.
Another is that we need to remove the assumption that space-time is continuous. I take my glass of water, and it looks continuous to me, but fundamentally it’s atomic. Maybe it’s the same with space-time. This is the idea spelled out in loop quantum gravity, or in causal sets.
Or you can say that fields and particles persist; space-time persists; and the new thing is that space-time takes on a structure that is, broadly speaking, like a fractal: The intensity of the forces, including gravity, stops changing, and you start seeing the same picture, the same rules for how particles talk to each other, over and over. That’s the idea I’m pursuing, asymptotic safety. If this self-similar realm exists, then the fluctuations of space-time, and of the other fields, would become stable enough for us to make predictions using good old-fashioned quantum field theory... (MORE - missing details)
https://oxsci.org/quantum-life/
INTRO: Quantum physics and biology may seem worlds apart, yet growing evidence suggests they are more deeply intertwined than we ever imagined....
A quirk of relativity is the closest thing to achieving immortality
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/...mortality/
KEY POINTS: No matter who, what, or where you are, or how fast you travel, time will always travel at the same rate for you, the observer: at the rate of one second per second, always, and under all circumstances. However, by boosting yourself to near-light speeds, time will pass for the rest of the Universe more quickly than it will for you, enabling you to observe all of cosmic history unfold before you die. By leveraging a few tricks, like becoming a photon or experiencing gravitational time dilation, it may seem possible to endure permanently, but that’s only a trick of perspective. In the end, all will succumb to time’s inevitable passage... (MORE - details)
6 freaky particles that could fix physics—if they exist
https://gizmodo.com/6-freaky-particles-t...2000732052
INTRO: For all practical purposes, the Standard Model of particle physics is almost perfect. The tried-and-true framework predicts the behavior of particles with chilling accuracy—but most physicists also agree that it’s far from complete.
For instance, the mathematical framework of the model doesn’t play nice with general relativity—another “nearly perfect” theory—particularly with the Big Bang or black holes. The model also fails to address several unsolved mysteries in physics concerning widely accepted ideas like neutrino oscillations, matter-antimatter symmetry, or dark matter and dark energy.
An entire field dedicated to this very disparity, unsurprisingly called “physics beyond the Standard Model,” focuses on the theory’s gaps while offering alternatives. Often, this means physicists will come up with new particles to supplement those known to exist. These hypothetical particles are, well, hypothetical, but that doesn’t mean they’ll forever be out of reach. After all, it was only in 1897 that humanity discovered the electron and the Higgs boson as late as 2012.
Read on for some popular hypothetical particles that could fix physics—if they exist... (MORE - details)
Where some see strings, she sees a space-time made of fractals
https://www.quantamagazine.org/where-som...-20260311/
EXCERPT: So, the approach we use with most of the forces is called quantum field theory. It assumes the universe is full of quantum fields. Fields have ripples that manifest as pointlike particles. These particles move through a continuous space-time and interact via forces.
Ultimately the problem is that if we try to treat quantum gravity as a fluctuating quantum field in this most straightforward way, then this approach does not work.
Very roughly, for a well-understood force like electromagnetism, we need to consider fluctuations in the field at all scales. And these fluctuations never stop coming as you zoom in. They act like virtual particles with higher and higher energies. We know how to account for the effects of these high-energy virtual particles in our calculations: The intensity of the force changes, but that’s it.
But when you try to add gravity, which Albert Einstein linked with the structure of space-time, the fluctuations become problematic. At shorter distances, the higher-energy virtual particles interact in new and different ways. We can’t account for these ever-changing effects, so quantum field theory fails to predict what will happen at those tiny scales.
It tells us that something new happens as we zoom in. And I would say there are roughly three lines of thinking as to what that might be. One is that maybe quantum field theory breaks down, full stop. The objects are not points, in the way that we think of elementary particles as points. Instead, they become stringy. That’s string theory. To this day we call it the OMG plot. It was just so mind-blowing to us, that this idea really works out in a quantitative way.
Another is that we need to remove the assumption that space-time is continuous. I take my glass of water, and it looks continuous to me, but fundamentally it’s atomic. Maybe it’s the same with space-time. This is the idea spelled out in loop quantum gravity, or in causal sets.
Or you can say that fields and particles persist; space-time persists; and the new thing is that space-time takes on a structure that is, broadly speaking, like a fractal: The intensity of the forces, including gravity, stops changing, and you start seeing the same picture, the same rules for how particles talk to each other, over and over. That’s the idea I’m pursuing, asymptotic safety. If this self-similar realm exists, then the fluctuations of space-time, and of the other fields, would become stable enough for us to make predictions using good old-fashioned quantum field theory... (MORE - missing details)