Physicists are re-exploring the concept of time by thinking about wormholes in space, warp drives and other cosmic constructions, that "absurdly advanced civilizations" might use to travel through time.
Astronomers said yesterday that they, or at least their telescopes, had laid eyes for the first time on planets beyond the solar system
New research indicates that it is enormously more efficient to send a long message as a physical package, a cosmic FedEx, than as radio wave or laser pulse. These findings could change the radio-only strategy employed by most SETI programs worldwide.
Recent astronomical measurements, scientists say, cannot rule out the possibility that in a few billion years a mysterious force permeating space-time will be strong enough to blow everything apart, shred rocks, animals, molecules and finally even atoms in a last seemingly mad instant of cosmic self-abnegation.
Cosmologists debate the anthropic principle and the existence of multiple universes at a recent conference.
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence has finally gained acceptance both in scientific circles and in congress.
Some cosmologists imagine universes sprouting from one another in an endless geometric progression. Others imagine island universes floating and even colliding in a fifth dimension. Some cosmologists say the observable universe could be only a small patch in a much vaster ensemble bred endlessly in a chain of big bangs.
Physicists working in Europe announced yesterday that they had passed through nature's looking glass and had created atoms made of antimatter, or antiatoms, opening up the possibility of experiments in a realm once reserved for science fiction writers. Such experiments, theorists say, could test some of the basic tenets of modern physics and light the way to a deeper understanding of nature.
Cosmology is coming into focus as cosmologists are beginning to agree with one another. Blessed with new instruments like the Hubble Space Telescope and other space-based observatories, a new generation of their giant cousins on the ground and ever-faster computer networks, cosmology is entering "a golden age" in which data are finally outrunning speculation.
A recent NASA sponsored conference on extraterrestrial life highlights the increasing amount of attention and funding the agency is paying to the search for extraterrestrial life.