@adamfrank4.bsky.social
Astrophysicist. Author of The Little Book of Aliens. Stuff shows up at The Atlantic, NYTimes, Big Think, etc. The Ramones, the Mets and lots of video games.
Really looking forward to this meeting.
08.12.2025 14:31 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0As you'll see from the post, I am mostly talking about Earth orbit. I'll do another post on cis-lunar etc later.
02.12.2025 18:43 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
The first era of space exploration is over. The era of commercial exploitation has begun. It's the most significant change for the human push beyond the planet since the first rocket launches of the 1950s. Here's a few things you need to know.
www.everymansuniverse.com/p/space-is-c...
That too
01.12.2025 00:36 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Grateful to Philip Ball for this thoughtful piece on our recent hard-steps paper! @jmacalad.bsky.social @adamfrank4.bsky.social @astrowright.bsky.social
30.11.2025 00:10 — 👍 7 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0Great to see this excellent deep dive into the influential Hard Steps model for the evolution of intelligence and our paper showing why it’s wrong.
30.11.2025 13:32 — 👍 18 🔁 5 💬 4 📌 0
Hey, you wanna become an astronaut? Well you probably can't but you could win a trip to train like one. My friends over Science Alert are running a Space Coast trip sweepstakes.
www.sciencealert.com/spark-into-s...
I am extremely skeptical that anything we are building now is even close to SuperIntelligence. That's not the issue as this tech gets shoved down our throats.
The real problem facing us is not getting AI “right” but getting human’s wrong.
www.everymansuniverse.com/p/the-real-d...
Over the last few centuries we humans have rewired the state of entire planet which is pretty amazing for a bunch of hairless monkeys
But as Earth slides deeper into these dangerous changes, the question facing us as a species is “What now?”
www.everymansuniverse.com/p/globalism-...
But this is lovely...
"Those who follow Loeb are not enemies of science. They are, in many cases, its disappointed lovers, people drawn to the wonder of the cosmos but misled by the seduction of easy answers. The way back is not through ridicule but through empathy and gentle conversation."
"In the end, the problem is not Avi Loeb himself, but the cultural ecosystem that rewards spectacle over substance."
True and the problem is still Avi Loeb.
Astrobiology turns out to have profound insights about how to create a "mature" technosphere that can endure on timescales approaching those of geology.
13.11.2025 20:08 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
In case folks missed it. Here is a short post with the link to Jason Wright's explanation of the numerous problems with Avi Loeb's 3I/Atlas shenanigans.
www.everymansuniverse.com/p/3i-atlas-a...
Thanks. I do go places when invited to give public talks but mostly its science travel. I really appreciate the links you send!
13.11.2025 13:44 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0It's not so much about credentials, it's about decades of experience. I am not about to tell the HVAC repair person who shows up to fix my furnace that they are wrong because I have not spend a decade fixing them. When it comes to science the problem is amplified 1000 times.
13.11.2025 13:43 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
A wonderful conversation with Claire Webb of @berggruen.org about "The Planetary", a new view of the human future that begins with astrobiology. Part of their new @futurologypod.bsky.social podcast.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=O95O...
Here is a great review from @leebillings.bsky.social on the actual science around 3I/Atlas. It seems like lots of folks won't care about this amazing object unless it turns out to be aliens - which it won't (though I'd be psyched too be wrong).
www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...
Every other astronomer in the world.
11.11.2025 15:15 — 👍 12 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
11.11.2025 13:40 — 👍 11 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Great piece by astronomer and SETI leader Jason Wright on the endless, exhausting claims about 3I/Atlas by Avi Loeb.
"zero planetary scientists give Avi’s claims any credence... because he’s demonstrably wrong"
sites.psu.edu/astrowright/...
Everyone knows outer space is big & empty but what about inner space? What about the space inside solid stuff. One of the strangest discoveries of modern physics is that solid matter is a big fat lie.
Today on Everymans Universe.
www.everymansuniverse.com/p/why-doesn-...
We have a faculty position open at the URochester Physics department in Complexity Science. If you are an ambitious young researcher come join an ambitious growing program. Please apply.
Deadline coming very soon.
apply.interfolio.com/173432
Lots of fun response to this piece.
Imagining a Dark Matter "sector" for particle physics was a sensible response to data. But what if we never find Dark Matter particles?
www.everymansuniverse.com/p/what-is-da...
It was one of the most unusual and most exciting meetings I'd attended.
Amanda Geftner's beautiful description of last fall's "What Is Intelligence" conference held at a 13th century church in Italy.
nautil.us/what-is-inte...
Recently astronomers claimed to find evidence for ancient massive stars built from Dark Matter. While that's worth a post I thought a more straightforward question needed answering first.
What the hell is Dark Matter anyway?
www.everymansuniverse.com/p/what-is-da...
Two new scientific papers dropped both claiming to show evidence for “Non-Terrestrial Artifacts” in astronomical photographs taken in the 1950s.
What are we to make of them?
From Everyman's Universe.
www.everymansuniverse.com/p/did-scienc...
"The idea of golden ages of empire leading to technological and cultural progress, and the fall of empires as leading to regression is, at best, mistaken."
From Kemp "Goliath's Curse"
We're are likely heading towards systemic change and history can help us see what to expect.
Yesterday's talk = thought provoking. Working on paper about the Quantum Measurement problem and its philosophical issues . Did not know about the problems with even formulating the problem in relativistic QM and relativistic QFT.
No matter what Quantum Mechanics is beautiful.
As if the regular quantum mechanical measurement problem wasn't enough.
Today's University of Rochester Physics Dept colloquium.
What's next for the recently published "UFOs in the 1950s" scientific papers?
The main message in today's Everyman's Universe is... game on.
www.everymansuniverse.com/p/did-scienc...
