Is the Universe the same in every direction?

Many calculation made by cosmologists about the universe start with the assumption that it is uniform and is not stretched or distorted. If this assumption turned out to be false, then all such calculations would be invalidated, so is it true? The idea that it is uniform does not appear to be correct when you consider … Read more

The Largest Structure in the Universe – The BOSS Wall

Smithsonian.com has a nice article all about the largest structure in the Universe that has been recently observed… or to be a tad more precise, the largest that we have observed so far. The background context here is that the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey has been mapping the galaxies and quasars in the early universe and they have now … Read more

Rumours of big discovery – Gravitational Waves

There is a lot of back chatter, excitement and tweets flowing about the probable discovery of Gravitational Waves. “Hey wait a second, that was announced already“, you might say. True indeed, there was an announcement made on 17 March 2014, but that was withdrawn on 30 January 2015 because further analysis concluded that “the signal can be entirely … Read more

Claim: Physicists ‘PROVE’ God DIDN’T create the Universe

Let’s start with the TL;DR; short version – no, the claim is pure nonsense. Now for the longer version, I’ve not suddenly turned religious, and tempting as it might be to run with a story that just happens to align with the conclusion I have reached, I can’t because it is simply not true. I’ll explain why, … Read more

The Origins of the Universe

When pondering over the origins of the universe, the standard religious answer is “God did it, problem solved, now let’s move on to believing”. Oh wait. Evidence for this claim is … well so far, it is exactly zero. It also has a rather fatal flaw because you then need to explain the origins of this god. The … Read more

Wainwright is at it again, the papers were running stories of his “Aliens” claim

Yea, it is that time of year, and so once again the claims being made by Mr Wainwright have been popping up … Express – Is this picture a ‘seed’ sent to Earth by aliens? Scientists discover mysterious organism Huffington Post – Aliens May Have Sent Space Seeds To Create Life On Earth He was promoting this … Read more