Mars once had sprawling river systems that rivaled major watersheds on Earth, and scientists have now identified the biggest ones for the first time. Researchers mapped 16 massive drainage basins where water likely flowed long enough to support life. Even though these areas cover just 5% of ancient Martian terrain, they account for a huge share of erosion and sediment movement. That makes them some of the most promising places to search for ancient life.
Einstein never liked the idea that nature is uncertain and he once said âdoes that mean the Moon is not there when I am not looking at itâ. He believed we live in an orderly Universe which is fundamentally rational and that there should always be a reason why thing happen. But there is a way to have the objective Universe of Einstein and the uncertainty of quantum physics and that is by explaining quantum mechanics as the physics of âtimeâ with the future as an emergent property.
In this radical theory the mathematics of quantum mechanics represents the physics of âtimeâ as a physical process with classical physics representing process over a period of time as in Newtonâs differential equations. This is a process formed by the spontaneous absorption and emission of light photon energy. This forms a continuous process of energy exchange that forms the ever changing world of our everyday life.
The Universe is a continuum with the future coming into existence photon by photon with each new photon electron coupling or dipole moment. This forms the movement of positive and negative charge with the continuous flow of electromagnetic fields.
Consciousness in the form of electrical activity in the brain is the most advanced part of this process and can therefore comprehend this process as âtimeâ. With a past that has gone forever and a future that is always uncertain in the form of a probability function or quantum wave particle function that is explained mathematically by Schrödingerâs wave equation Κ. Therefore each individual is in the centre of their own reference frame as an interactive part of this process. With their own time line from the past into the future being able to look back in time in all directions at the beauty of the stars! It is this personalization of the brain being in âthe moment of nowâ in the center of its own reference frame that gives us the concept of âmindâ with each one of us having our own personal view of the beauty and uncertainty of life.
It is not that there is uncertainty if the Moon is there or not if nobody looks. It is that the physical act of looking will form new light photon oscillations or vibrations relative to the actions of the observer in a continuous flow of cause and effect. The wave particle duality of light is acting like the bits or zeros and ones of a computer. This forms an interactive process continuously forming a blank canvas that we can interact with turning the possible into the actual! Any observation of the Moon will be over a period of time with the wave nature of light explaining diffraction, interference, reflection and refraction. But the particle nature of light the âphotonâ will only come into existence when the light comes in contact with the lenses and mirrors of the telescope being used. And finally with new photons be formed in the eye of the observer the uncertainty of the observation will be completed using both the wave and particle nature of light!
What we see in our everyday life as an uncertain future is formed by a physical process that at the smallest scale is represented mathematically by Heisenbergâs Uncertainty Principle âĂâpĂâ„h/4Ï with the Planck constant ħ=h/2Ï being a constant of action in the dynamics geometry of space and time! This theory takes quantum potential, electrical potential and gravitational potential and combines them into one universal process. That explains why we all have a potential future in our everyday life that is always uncertain. This is done by making the future an emergent property energy âE slows the rate that time ât flows creating a future relative to the energy and momentum of each object or life form. For in this theory creation is truly in the hand and eye of the beholder with an objective reality in the form of a dynamic interactive process that forms an infinity of possibilities. Please share and subscribe it will help the promotion of this theory!
Since the interstellar object (ISO) 3I/ATLAS was first discovered on July 1, 2025, it has garnered much attention, including speculation, hopes and fears that it may somehow contain evidence of technologically advanced civilizations outside of our solar system.
Now, a new paper published on the arXiv preprint server details the findings from radio observations made at the 100-meter Green Bank Telescope as a part of the Breakthrough Listen program, designed to look for signs of alien life. The data were taken on December 18, 2025âthe day before the objectâs closest approach to Earth, and those hoping for evidence of advanced alien civilizations may not like the results.
Edward Witten, widely regarded as one of the greatest living theoretical physicists, sits down with Brian Greene to explore the deepest questions at the frontiers of modern science. From string theory and quantum gravity to black holes, cosmology, and the nature of consciousness, Witten reflects on what physics has revealedâand what remains profoundly mysterious.
The only physicist to receive the Fields Medal, Witten discusses why unifying quantum mechanics and general relativity has proven so difficult, how string theory forces gravity into its framework, and why decades of progress have still not revealed the fundamental principles underlying the theory. He also examines powerful ideas such as duality, extra dimensions, and the controversial anthropic principle, offering rare insight into how physicists grapple with uncertainty at the edge of human understanding.
The conversation moves beyond equations into philosophy, addressing questions about free will, the quantum measurement problem, and whether consciousness plays a role in how reality is observed. Witten reflects candidly on discovery, doubt, beauty in mathematics, and what it feels like to work at the limits of knowledge.
This discussion is essential viewing for anyone interested in theoretical physics, cosmology, quantum theory, and the future of our understanding of the universe.
This program is part of the Rethinking Reality series, supported by the John Templeton Foundation.
Participant: Edward Witten.
Moderator: Brian Greene.
0:00:00 â Introduction: Free Will, Physics, and the Quest to Unify Reality.
For the first time, scientists have made a clear X-ray detection of chlorine and potassium in the wreckage of a star using data from the Japan-led XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) spacecraft.
The Resolve instrument aboard XRISM, pronounced âcrism,â discovered these elements in a supernova remnant called Cassiopeia A or Cas A, for short. The expanding cloud of debris is located about 11,000 light-years away in the northern constellation Cassiopeia.
âThis discovery helps illustrate how the deaths of stars and life on Earth are fundamentally linked,â said Toshiki Sato, an astrophysicist at Meiji University in Tokyo. âStars appear to shimmer quietly in the night sky, but they actively forge materials that form planets and enable life as we know it. Now, thanks to XRISM, we have a better idea of when and how stars might make crucial, yet harder-to-find, elements.â
Experiments reveal that inflation not only smooths the universe but populates it with a specific distribution of initial perturbations, creating a foundation for structure formation. The team measured how quantum fluctuations during inflation are stretched and amplified, transitioning from quantum to classical behavior through a process of decoherence and coarse-graining. This process yields an emergent classical stochastic process, captured by Langevin or Fokker-Planck equations, demonstrating how classical stochastic dynamics can emerge from underlying quantum dynamics. The research highlights that the âinitial conditionsâ for galaxy formation are not arbitrary, but constrained by the Gaussian field generated during inflation, possessing specific correlations. This framework provides a cross-scale narrative, linking microphysics and cosmology to life, brains, culture, and ultimately, artificial intelligence, demonstrating a continuous evolution of dynamics across the universe.
Universeâs Evolution, From Cosmos to Cognition
This research presents a unified, cross-scale narrative of the universeâs evolution, framing cosmology, astrophysics, biology, and artificial intelligence as successive regimes of dynamical systems. Rather than viewing these fields as separate, the work demonstrates how each builds upon the previous, connected by phase transitions, symmetry-breaking events, and attractors, ultimately tracing a continuous chain from the Big Bang to contemporary learning systems. The team illustrates how gravitational instability shapes the cosmic web, leading to star and planet formation, and how geochemical cycles establish stable, long-lived attractors, providing the foundation for lifeâs emergence as self-maintaining reaction networks. The study emphasizes that the universe is not simply evolving in state, but also in its capacity for description and learning, with each transition.
Sadly quite a realistic view.
How special are we? A recent research paper suggests that terrestrial-style biology may be rare, and Earth may be among the first examples of a planet able to sustain life in the cosmos. Even as the new kids on the block, humans are seemingly one of the precious few instances of intelligence to arise in the universe since the Big Bang did its thing.
Related: The Search For Life Starts With Human Missions to Mars
Harvard Astronomer Avi Loeb and his colleagues in the U.K. have argued that the halcyon days for life are still to come. Itâs not even morning in the universe; itâs pre-dawn. Biology may erupt like weeds on an untold number of worlds, but if so, the infestation will take place tens of billions of years in the future.
Launched in March, NASAâs SPHEREx space telescope has completed its first infrared map of the entire sky in 102 colors.
While not visible to the human eye, these 102 infrared wavelengths of light are prevalent in the cosmos, and observing the entire sky this way enables scientists to answer big questions, including how a dramatic event that occurred in the first billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second after the big bang influenced the 3D distribution of hundreds of millions of galaxies in our universe.
In addition, scientists will use the data to study how galaxies have changed over the universeâs nearly 14 billion-year history and learn about the distribution of key ingredients for life in our own galaxy.
Youâve probably grown up accepting that your thoughts, feelings, and inner awareness all emerge from the firing of neurons in your brain. Itâs what science has taught us for decades. Your consciousness is simply what happens when billions of brain cells communicate. Simple enough, right?
What if youâve been looking at this backwards the whole time? What if the entire universe has been trying to tell you something fundamentally different about the nature of reality itself?
A materials science professor from Uppsala University recently published a framework that proposes an entirely new theory of the origin of the universe. Hereâs where things get interesting. This framework presents consciousness not as a byproduct of brain activity, but as a fundamental field underlying everything we experience, including matter, space, time, and life itself.