Horgan Seminar Blog

               Seventh-grade science class consisted of the very basics of astrophysics. Theory of how the universe was formed. The planets that make up our solar system. How our universe continues to change. On the final exam, there was one question that stumped me. Still, nine years later, I think about that question: “How was our universe formed?” My mind wandered. Was it God? The big bang theory? Something else? How was someone so young supposed to definitively answer that question? Even today, there is a working theory that scientists believe to be true, the big bang theory, but we can never know for a fact that this was how our universe started.             In the 1920s, Georges Lemaître , a Belgian priest, brought forth the idea that our universe was started with a single primordial atom . His suggestion of the big bang theory was supported when Edwin Hubble discovered in 1929 th...

Episode X – The Fall of Imagination: The Lack of Physics in the K12 Education Rohit Patel                       Do you remember attending the movie theaters and seeing the newest Star Wars Movie as a kid? You see these unique worlds and crazy technologies transforming the characters' lives in the film. You see droids that are able to provide medical care. You see flying vehicles. You see spaceships that travel through light speed to reach far-away destinations.  The movie ends, and you walk out of the movie theater with your imagination going wild. You have all these ideas that you want to create. You want to revolutionize space travel. You want to recreate the Millennium Falcon. However, then reality hits you. You don’t have the knowledge to bring your imagination to life. What is the reason for this? Why do you not know where to start? This is where there is an issue in the schooling of kids. I believe physics is un...

By: Aidan McCartin                                                                      Sabine Hossenfelder's blog post titled "Do We Need a Theory of Everything?" delves into the intriguing and longstanding question at the heart of theoretical physics: Is a Theory of Everything necessary, and if so, what form should it take? Hossenfelder, a theoretical physicist recognized for her critical viewpoint, criticizes the widely held belief that the ultimate goal of physics is to discover a single, elegant, and all-encompassing theory that unifies all of the universe's fundamental forces and particles. She claims that the search for a Theory of Everything, which has captured physicists' imaginations for decades, has reached a threshold of diminishing returns. Instead, she proposes focusing on more practical and...

If your parents are mega nerds, like mine, there’s a fair chance that you’ve heard of Star Trek . The franchise has lots of TV series and movies, but the main premise is a group of humans and aliens alike traveling through the universe on a discovery mission. They help planets and species in need, conduct research, and battle against evil doing foes, such as the Borg. When I was in the 3rd grade, my family would watch one particular spin off Star Trek TV series, Star Trek: Voyager . The show had all the hallmark Star Trek gadgets and technology. The starship USS Voyager cruised through galaxies with a warp drive, crew members could beam down through space to other planets and vessels, and everyone had their choice of food synthesized on the spot with a meal replicator. In my young mind, it seemed like all of the technology that was used in the starship could be real. The crew spoke with such a deceiving level of complexity and depth about the technology that I thought it all must ...

Olivia Parlow Let’s play a game of Guess Who. Since you’re not here to ask me questions, we’re going to play a little differently. I will give you facts about our mystery person and you will pick from a choice of two options: a String Theorist or a Priest.  Here are your hints: This person is looking for a way to explain our existence and our universe. This person’s explanation is unfalsifiable, meaning it cannot be tested.  This person believes in things that cannot be seen or experienced here on earth.  If you guessed both of them, you would be correct! While many see the two fields of religion and science to be very distinct, the tale of string theory proves them to have more in common than one might think. However, what do these similarities mean for the future of science? Theoretical physicists have been on a quest to unify the two great understandings of physics: the general theory of relativity and quantum theory. General relativity was established in 1915 by ...

By: Stephanie Ross The quest for a Theory of Everything represents an unnecessary, but ambitious endeavor to unify the fundamental forces of nature. The idea that there exists a single “pretty” framework capable of explaining all the phenomena in the cosmos reflects humanity's intrinsic desire to uncover the underlying aesthetic principles that govern our existence.  At the heart of the Theory of Everything is the hope to unify the four fundamental forces of nature: gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. This unification not only promises a more comprehensive understanding of the universe, but also holds an aesthetic allure. The idea that diverse phenomena, from the graceful orbits of planets to the complex behavior of subatomic particles, can be elegantly summed up within a single framework speaks to our desire for unity and simplicity. Albert Einstein's quest for a unified theory of gravity and electromagnetism began with the theory of general rela...

  Beauty, Complexity, and Theory of Everything By: Megha Jain   On her 18th birthday, Emily set out on a mission to purchase her dream car, much like her friends, who all owned their cars. For Emily and her friends, buying a car seemed simple; it did not require much thinking. The only criteria she had for her dream car was to possess every aesthetic quality possible. The prettier the car is, the better her purchase is. Little did she know that her quest for a perfect car would lead her to the realization connected to the Theory of Everything.   The Theory of Everything is a theoretical concept in physics that seeks to unite all fundamental forces and particles into a single, cohesive framework. The idea of one theory explaining every phenomenon in the world appears odd to me. Still, many physicists are drawn to this idea because they recognize beauty in the fundamental principles of nature. According to a study conducted by Brandon Vaidyanathan, which surveyed nearl...

Scientists stumble upon discoveries that they tend to label as ‘anomalies,’ since the results of their research do not line up with theories that are widely accepted as truth. The inconsistencies between data and theory often lead scientists to disprove their hypothesis or accept that their findings are a singular exception to that theory. These scientists that exhibit a fixed mindset on theories of science contribute to the limits of scientific discovery. Scientific discovery is limited to the ability of the scientist to be unbiased and open-minded to the results of the experiment. If the researcher is hyper fixated on proving the acceptance of the hypothesis, consciously or unconsciously, that scientist may leverage the data from research to prove that theory as truth. According to Christie Aschwanden in the article “Science Isn’t Broken,” scientists often determine specific experimental controls based off their own biases that lead to p-hacking; these scientists are not necessarily ...

How to Make Science Truly Limitless By: Rohit Patel      Do you remember hearing about the scientific discoveries that occurred as a kid in your history class? It started with the scientific revolution, then proceeded to the Industrial Revolution, and ever since there has been a surge of scientific discoveries. There was the creation of the microscope, the discovery of the cell, the theory of special relativity, the Haber process, and more. There were so many discoveries, all happening at a fast rate. However, this trend started to change. The rate of scientific discoveries in these fields of biology, chemistry, and physics has been slowing down. There were fewer discoveries from more recent times being added to school textbooks. So, what happened?      You would think that if we invested more in science, the rate of scientific discoveries would increase. This could be because scientists can afford the most advanced technologies and collaborate with many sc...

When nagging my siblings and I to do a chore or simple task, my mom frequently whips out “you can do it, not like it's rocket science”. Until I began college, I never felt that I was challenged enough for some assignment or activity to reach the “rocket science” hardness level. Then I waltzed, metaphorically because class was on zoom, into a physics class freshman year and I realized “holy shit, I’m doing rocket science”. From then on more and more of my coursework met my completely subjective threshold of “rocket science” difficulty. I found that there were no more easy classes I could put on the back burner. I really had to hunker down and dedicate lots of time and energy to even grasp many concepts.  My biggest challenge to date has been organic chemistry. The content pace and four hour labs proved to be grueling every week. Looking back, that's when I began to cut corners or take some “researcher degrees of freedom”. Rather than getting points off my lab reports for produci...

In a world where individuals, regardless of their status as a celebrity, politician, Olympian, social media influencer, or regular college student, live under the constant scrutiny of being “canceled,” science occupies a particularly vulnerable position. Amid the relentless quest for the truth, science seems to be the victim of cancel culture, especially concerning COVID-19.  During the pandemic, a significant portion of the population resisted mask-wearing, social distancing, and vaccination efforts and often tried to “cancel” the field of science itself. As Maddie Burakoff, a reporter for The Associated Press , observed in a survey, “Only 39% of U.S. adults said they had “a great deal of confidence” in the scientific community, down from 48% in 2018 and 2021.” Many people argued that scientists did not know what they were doing and that science was being misused for the wrong reasons. Due to people’s lack of understanding and trust in science, the spread of COVID-19 was heightene...