(Quantum) Erasing the Nature of Reality
By throwing away information in a particular way, we are then able to alter the quantum mechanical outcomes.
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The Shape of Gravity
New insights into theories with extra dimensions have the potential to address outstanding issues in cosmology.
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Parallel Universes
Could there be a universe in which gravity is a bit stronger, or the electron a bit heavier?
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Investigations: On the Nature of Autonomous Agents
Metanexus: Views. 2002.02.17. 1487 words Stuart Kauffman has coined the term ‘autonomous agents’ to characterize aprogram of research aimed at explaining how a system can have ‘a life of itsown.’ He is a biophysicist and complexity theorist with his own theory ofthe origin of life based on autocatalytic cycles of chemical reactions. ForKauffman, constraints play…
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Thought-Experiments in Honor of John Wheeler
Four thought-experiments that are intended to set limits to the scope of quantum mechanics.
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The Heritage of Heraclitus & The Itch to Speculate
Metanexus: Views. 2002.02.12. 1405 words We continue our special series on the VIEWS list in anticipation of theScience & Ultimate Reality Symposium in Princeton. This symposium in honorof the 90th year of John Archibald Wheeler–a great physicist and teacher ofphysicists–runs from March 15-18, 2002. But before we come to today’s column The Heritage of Heraclitus:…
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Large Cosmic Lessons in Physics
Is the universe trying to tell us something?
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The Legacy of John Archibald Wheeler
John Wheeler likes to say that his career has moved through three phases, from “Everything is particles” to “Everything is fields” to “Everything is information.”
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Review of Parallax: The Race to Measure the Cosmos
Metanexus:Views 2002.01.18 2132 words Parallax can be fun. Like when you are sitting in the bathtub and makingyour fingers get longer or shorter depending on the angle at which you placethem in the water. Or when you observe the amazement of a child with a strawin a glass of water. The straw may go in…
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Perceived Reality: Matter
Matter is the most striking feature of perceived reality. It is all around us and within us too. Bereft of it the world would be insubstantial nothingness: a metaphysical thought with no physical correspondence. We see things, touch things, taste things, hear and smell things: all these make up much of perceived reality. Matter requires…