Stories by Sabine Hossenfelder

Is the Standard Model of Physics Now Broken?

The discrepancy between the theoretical prediction and the experimentally determined value of the muon’s magnetic moment has become slightly stronger with a new result from Fermilab...

The World Doesn’t Need a New Gigantic Particle Collider

It would cost many billions of dollars, the potential rewards are unclear—and the money could be better spent researching threats such as climate change and emerging viruses

The Truth about Scientific Models

They don’t necessarily try to predict what will happen—but they can help us understand possible futures

Which Should Come First in Physics: Theory or Experiment? Glad You Asked

Since Newton, the foundations of physics progressed in a virtuous cycle of hypothesis and experiment until the cycle broke 40 years ago. A bigger collider will not solve the problem

Is Dark Matter Real?

Astrophysicists have piled up observations that are difficult to explain with dark matter. It is time to consider that there may be more to gravity than Einstein taught us

A Theory with No Strings Attached: Can Beautiful Physics Be Wrong? [Excerpt]

A physicist decries the trend of chasing after aesthetically pleasing theories that lack empirical evidence

Lost in Thought—How Important to Physics Were Einstein’s Imaginings?

Einstein’s thought experiments left a long and somewhat mixed legacy of their own

The American River Paddle Wheel Steamboat " Mary Powell"