Looking for Warp Drives with LIGO?

A new pre-print claims that LIGO could detect warp drives. Alas, the analysis in the paper isn’t about warp drives, it’s about any massive accelerated object. It is correct that such an object would emit gravitational waves and if it’s large enough, that might be measurable. This isn’t new though and has been studied before.It is extremely questionable that a reasonably-sized propelled space-craft would create gravitational waves in LIGO’s sensitivity range. I therefore suggest you remain skeptical of the claims in the paper and wait whether it passes peer-review. I explained the status of warp drives in this video. 

Yellowstone Volcano Has More Liquid Magma Than Scientists Thought

You can check out the newest Science News episode here, where I talk about the 50-year anniversary of Apollo’s blue marble, the Square Kilometre Array, talking to robots, the Yellowstone volcano, nanoparticles that help with carbon capture, a forest bubble on Mars, a new method of spacecraft propulsion, tests for cancer, earthquake tracking from space, and of course, the telephone will ring. 

Yet Another Proposal For a Dark Matter Detector

A group of physicists has proposed to send two precise atomic clocks into the inner ranges of our solar system to look for a halo of ultralight dark matter. Press release here, preprint here, published paper here. It’s unclear whether dark matter is made of particles. Even if it is, we have no reason to think that it’s made of ultralight particles in particular, and not all of them form halos around the sun. All that to say, I don’t think this is a promising experiment.

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The Other Side of Physics

Last month, I gave a talk at TEDxNewcastle about some topics in my new book. The recording is now available on YouTube.

What does the "Uncertainty Principle" Mean?

Where does Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle come from and what does it mean? Is it really a quantum principle? I'll sort it out for you. 

Support Sabine on Patreon!

There is a new 5th Patreon tier that’ll give you access to our videos ad-free and without sponsor messages, as well as access to certain new videos early.

Existential Physics: The Big Questions Raised by Modern Physics

A contrarian scientist wrestles with the big questions that modern physics raises, and what physics says about the human condition. Order it here today!