The record
31 entries
Planck's precise measurement of CMB temperature anisotropies matches the six-parameter ΛCDM model, fixing the universe's age, geometry, and composition (5% ordi…
Weak-lensing mass maps of colliding clusters show the gravitational mass leading the X-ray-emitting gas, hard to explain if all mass is the visible baryons — st…
Rotation velocities stay flat far from galactic centers instead of falling off, implying either unseen mass or a departure from Newtonian dynamics at low accele…
Distant standard-candle supernovae are dimmer than expected in a decelerating universe, evidence that cosmic expansion is accelerating — attributed to dark ener…
The vacuum energy predicted by quantum field theory exceeds the observed dark-energy density by many tens of orders of magnitude — a profound mismatch with any…
The most sensitive WIMP dark-matter search to date reports no signal, excluding large regions of candidate parameter space and constraining the simplest particl…
A single acceleration scale reproduces many galaxy rotation curves without dark matter, a regularity (the radial-acceleration relation) that pure-particle dark…
Measured correlations between entangled photons violate Bell inequalities, ruling out local hidden-variable explanations of quantum correlations.
A 1.3 km electron-spin experiment closed the detection and locality loopholes simultaneously, confirming Bell violations under the strictest conditions.
Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen argued that quantum mechanics is either incomplete or permits "spooky" nonlocal influence, framing the debate later settled empiric…
Chalmers argues that functional and physical explanations address the "easy problems" but leave unexplained why those processes are accompanied by subjective ex…
Specific, manipulable neural activity reliably tracks the contents of conscious experience, supporting a tight dependence of mind on brain.
IIT proposes that consciousness corresponds to integrated information (Φ) in a system, yielding quantitative, in-principle-testable predictions about which syst…
Crick's programmatic claim that mental states are wholly the behaviour of neurons motivates a reductive, physicalist research program for consciousness.
Wigner observes that abstract mathematics developed for its own sake repeatedly turns out to describe physical reality with uncanny precision.
Tegmark proposes that physical reality is a mathematical structure, implying the effectiveness of mathematics is definitional rather than mysterious.
A spark discharge through a reducing gas mixture produced amino acids, showing biologically relevant molecules can form from simple precursors under plausible e…
Powner et al. synthesized activated pyrimidine ribonucleotides via a route bypassing free ribose and base, a major boost to the plausibility of an RNA-world ori…
Bekenstein argued black holes carry entropy proportional to their horizon area, tying gravity, thermodynamics, and information together.
Hawking showed black holes radiate thermally, confirming they are thermodynamic objects with a temperature and entropy and raising the information-loss puzzle.
Maldacena's duality equates a gravitational theory in a volume with a non-gravitational quantum theory on its boundary, a concrete realization of the holographi…
Verlinde proposes gravity is not fundamental but an entropic force arising from information associated with the positions of matter — a speculative but explicit…
Penrose–Hawking theorems show that, under general conditions, general relativity predicts spacetime singularities — a beginning or boundary where the classical…
Guth's inflationary epoch of rapid early expansion explains the universe's flatness, homogeneity, and the absence of relics, and seeds structure from quantum fl…
Planck's measurements of the primordial spectrum are consistent with simple inflation and disfavor many specific models, while not uniquely confirming inflation…
Local distance-ladder measurements of the expansion rate disagree with the value inferred from the CMB at high significance, hinting at unknown physics or syste…
Laudan notes that many past successful theories were later judged false, cautioning against inferring that our current best theories are true descriptions of re…
Wheeler proposes that every physical entity derives its existence from binary, information-theoretic answers to yes/no questions — information as the ground of…
Penrose argues that human mathematical insight exceeds any algorithm, suggesting consciousness involves physics beyond standard computation — a much-criticized…
JWST has revealed surprisingly bright, mature galaxies at very high redshift, probing the first hundreds of millions of years and testing models of structure fo…
Fundamental dynamical laws are (nearly) invariant under time reversal, so the macroscopic arrow of time cannot come from the dynamics alone and must be sought i…