Hey, thanks Brent.
If Mr. Anderson was interested in exploring the ideas I’m playing with (which descend from the ideas of John Wheeler and Lee Smolin), and which certainly have something to say about these forces, I guess this might be a fun place to start…
theeggandtherock.com/p/the-blowto...
You HAVE to watch this video! They've developed adaptive optics for a solar telescope in California. That means they can adjust for all the wiggle and wobble of the air above the telescope, so they've been able to capture images as sharp as if the telescope were in space.
STUNNNNNING!!!
Plasma rain!
Oh, they now have adaptive optics for a solar telescope! I had no idea they'd been working on this. GLORIOUS images, thanks...
Pranav Satheesh reports for @astrobites.bsky.social on a new method being used to explore the relationship between the mass of a supermassive black hole and the properties of the galaxy it inhabits. aasnova.org/2025/06/03/j... 🔭
Thank you, Justin. That's very nice of you to say.
Anyone remotely interested in #cosmology, #evolution, or #philosophy should read this deeply insightful, highly entertaining, beautifully written post by Julian Gough @juliangough.bsky.social, who's taken cosmological natural selection (originally by Dr. Lee Smolin) to a new, fascinating level.
Mmmm, very sweet shot. Well done.
There’s no pattern to the masses of the particles, or the strength of the forces, that you can derive just from those things themselves. Their meaning lies downstream, in their consequences for the reproductive success of the universe. Which is why their values are all over the place. They evolved.
There’s no pattern to the masses of the particles, or the strength of the forces, that you can derive just from those things themselves. Their meaning lies downstream, in their consequences for the reproductive success of the universe. Which is why their values are all over the place. They evolved.
Yes, that would be pretty much my take on this. If our universe evolved, then the laws of physics will be fine-tuned for an outcome. They won’t be symmetrical or beautiful in themselves, just as a tiger’s genes aren’t beautiful in themselves. The beauty is in the outcome: the tiger, the universe.
Yes, that would be pretty much my take on this. If our universe evolved, then the laws of physics will be fine-tuned for an outcome. They won’t be symmetrical or beautiful in themselves, just as a tiger’s genes aren’t beautiful in themselves. The beauty is in the outcome: the tiger, the universe.
Well, Blowtorch Theory is currently number one on Hacker News for some reason, and getting the usual grumpy reaction you’d expect from those guys. Feel free to join in and tell them they’re wrong!
news.ycombinator.com
I’m sorry! The Blowtorch Theory post kicked off so much reaction, and so many interesting people got in touch, that I’ve been taken up with dealing with that.
Plus, it’s a hard one to follow up! Nothing seems sufficiently important.
The extremely small blue dots are… intriguing. Not red, yet at that extreme a redshift…. Do we have a consensus view of what they are, how large, and how far back? (Look like, potentially, extremely early point-source quasars or AGNs to me. Which would be interesting!)
And here’s the James Webb vindicating those predictions:
theeggandtherock.com/p/killer-new...
Hope you find all this as interesting as I do!
Here are some predictions it made about the early universe, before the James Webb Space Telescope had sent back any data:
theeggandtherock.substack.com/p/prediction...
Because the extended version of the theory is now making successful predictions, it’s starting to get some mainstream coverage for the first time in, gosh, I suppose, decades.
www.irishtimes.com/science/spac...
Yeah, it’s a terrific theory. Has fascinating implications that even Lee Smolin himself didn’t see at the time. In fact, I’m currently writing a book that explains, explores, and expands on cosmological natural selection. You might find it interesting. I’ll find a couple of links, hang on…
I’m delighted…
So great to see @juliangough.bsky.social's This Lake Is Fake (brilliantly illustrated by the peerless Jim Field) shortlisted for the Alligator's Mouth Award. www.bookbrunch.co.uk/page/article...
Biology is the first half of the periodic table coming to life.
Technology is the second half of the periodic table coming to life.
I did!
Thank you. I’m so pleased it connected with you.
My bike covered in snow
Hopping on my bike to come home.
Good luck Paula. To my shame, I hadn't known about this series, delighted to discover it. (Yes, I'm afraid I am totally out of the publishing loop.) Ordering the first one for my son...
I wrote a piece about children's books for the Irish Times that may interest parents.
It's a deep dive into an invisible problem with children’s books, that makes it unnecessarily hard for kids to start reading on their own.
www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...
I hope you like the piece.
Thank you Jonathan!
Hey, thanks Tom. I enjoyed writing that one. I felt that people, understandably, were not really GETTING how huge the technical achievement was. The physical reality of the achievement, floating out there a million miles away, chilled so close to absolute zero. Delighted you liked it.
Oh, I’m so happy to hear that!