A perfect holiday gift to slip under the tree 🎄🌌

@philhalper.bsky.social
@uchicagopress.bsky.social

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Smithsonian Magazine just selected it as one of the Ten Best Science Books of 2025, and we wrote it for readers who want clarity, curiosity, and a fearless look at the controversies surrounding our universe’s origins.
www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...

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🎙️ We discussed the results (and why this matters for cosmic origins) with @philhalper.bsky.social:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZeL...

#Cosmology #QuantumGravity #Inflation #BigBang

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The model is also fully consistent with the latest ACT/SPT measurements of the scalar spectral index, which increasingly disfavour Starobinsky inflation.

📄 Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2510.18733

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@uchicagopress.bsky.social
@perimeterinstitute.ca
@uwaterloo.ca

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We’ll dive into questions like:
• Could quantum black holes hold clues to the universe’s past?
• Can causality survive the Big Bang?
• Is wonder still part of science?

📍 Harvard Science Center (Hall C)
🔗 science.fas.harvard.edu/event/harvar...

#CosmicOrigins #QuantumGravity #HarvardTalk

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I also texted a physicist friend, Spiros Michalakis (when I would get reception occasionally) about the passage and he agreed and asked me about the book. Thank you to @seanmcarroll.bsky.social for the podcast with @nafshordi.bsky.social which intrigued me enough to get the book.

Expect haunted horizons, ghostly fields, and cosmic echoes — a séance between theory and observation, reason and mystery.

🕯️ Join us under Dublin’s shadows, Edinburgh’s spires, or from the spectral halls of Zoom.
#HauntedCosmology #BattleOfTheBigBang #ScienceAndSpirits

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🦇 Edinburgh – Battle of the Big Bang: New Tales of Our Cosmic Origins
📅 Oct 24 · 13:00 BST
📍 Elm Lecture Theatre, Kings Buildings Campus, University of Edinburgh
🖥️ Online via Zoom (passcode: higgs_20)
🔗 higgs.ph.ed.ac.uk/colloquia/co...

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👻 Dublin – Ghosts, Phantoms & Monsters in the Battle of the Big Bang
📅 Oct 22 · 19:00 GMT+1
📍 Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
🔗 www.eventbrite.ie/e/ghosts-pha...

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Big topics covered:
• The relationship between empirical evidence & metaphysical claims
• Where cosmology stops and philosophy begins
• Implications for science, religion, and public discourse

Would love to hear your take: did science just tip the scales?

#BattleoftheBigBang

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