Paul Sutter

Is the Universe Defective? Part 4: Hiding in Plain Darkness

March 17, 2026

The WHAT? Yeah, the vortons. It’s not an anime monster-hunting show. It’s not some AI startup company. It’s a…it’s a thing. I think.

Is the Universe Defective? Part 3: The Great Vanishing Act

March 16, 2026

And yeah, we have a problem.

Is the Universe Defective? Part 2: The Persistence of Memory

March 15, 2026

But here’s the thing about these defects. They can’t just go away. They’re stuck.

Is the Universe Defective? Part 1: The Good Old Days

March 14, 2026

Every time you flip a light switch, or check the time, or feel the sodium ions wiggling in your brain — don’t think about that one too much—you’re assuming something fundamental. You’re assuming the universe is a finished product. A completed work. You think the Big Bang happened, the forces of nature settled into their seats, and we’ve been cruising on a smooth, predictable ride ever since.

Why Are Interstellar Comets So Weird? Part 4: We Finally Turned On the Porch Lights

March 13, 2026

So that's all nice. But why now? That's the question everyone asks. We went decades — centuries, millennia really — without seeing a single rock that didn't have a "Made in the Solar System" sticker on it. Then, in the span of less than ten years, we get the Big Three: 'Oumuamua, Borisov, and now 3I/ATLAS.

Why Are Interstellar Comets So Weird? Part 3: They SHOULD Be Weird

March 12, 2026

So why should we expect interstellar comets like 3I/ATLAS and 'Oumuamua and even to some extent Borisov to be different-different?

Why Are Interstellar Comets So Weird? Part 2: Why Comets Are Like Cats

March 11, 2026

Once you start listing the properties of 3I/ATLAS, it becomes clear pretty quickly that this thing is distinctly different from any other comet we've ever seen. Here's just a small taste.

Why Are Interstellar Comets So Weird? Part 1: The Strangers Blowing Through Town

March 10, 2026

Imagine you live in a small town. Maybe it’s easy for you to imagine because you actually do. You’ve spent your whole life there. You know all the people, and all the people know you. Years go by. Decades. The same faces at the same corner store, the same routes to the same places, the same sky overhead. It’s comfortable. Predictable. You could walk the whole thing blindfolded and never trip.

Are there Hidden Dimensions to the Universe? Part 4: Looking Past the Universe

February 10, 2026

So we did that. And we found nothing. So far, with all of our experiments around the world, we find no evidence of missing momentum, and no signs of towers of gravitons slipping away into hidden dimensions.

Are there Hidden Dimensions to the Universe? Part 3: The Graviton Tower

February 09, 2026

To test it, I want you to imagine rolling up a piece of paper into a tight cylinder. Or, if you happen to be near a source of paper, doing it in real life. The analogy works either way.

Are there Hidden Dimensions to the Universe? Part 2: The Hierarchy Problem

February 08, 2026

The problem that large extra dimensions just might solve is called the hierarchy problem, and it’s one of the nastiest outstanding problems in modern physics.

Are there Hidden Dimensions to the Universe? Part 1: Kaluza and Klein

February 07, 2026

I always say that one of the things that separates real science from pseudoscience is that while in both you’re allowed to say whatever crazy idea pops into your mind, in real science you’re obligated to take that idea seriously.

Is the Universe Older Than We Think? Part 4: The Changing Lambda-scape

February 06, 2026

Isn’t the FLRW metric way generic? It lays out the basic assumptions and tells us how the universe should behave, but it doesn’t say WHAT the universe is made of.

Is the Universe Older Than We Think? Part 3: Timescape

February 05, 2026

The FLRW metric is a model. And you know the saying, all models are wrong, but some are useful.

Is the Universe Older Than We Think? Part 2: Tired Light

February 04, 2026

This is all based on the assumption that galaxies are receding away from us. And I actually cheated a little.

Is the Universe Older Than We Think? Part 1: The Cosmological Clock

February 03, 2026

When I say that the universe is 13.77 billion years old, it sounds rather authoritative.

$Is the Universe Made of Math? Part 4: The Fire and the Filter$

Is the Universe Made of Math? Part 4: The Fire and the Filter

January 13, 2026

Like I said at the beginning, I’m not really keen on the idea of the mathematical universe. My own personal biggest objection stems from the whole point of occam’s razor: make things as simple as possible.

Is the Universe Made of Math? Part 3: The Frog and the Bird

January 12, 2026

Beginning in the 1980’s, another physicist, Roger Penrose, came up with what he called the Triangle of Reality, which sounds like the nerdiest cult in history (and when later I get to talk about the Pythagoreans you’ll see that I’m right).

$Is the Universe Made of Math? Part 2: The Minimalist Universe$

Is the Universe Made of Math? Part 2: The Minimalist Universe

January 11, 2026

Like, it shouldn’t be this easy. Yeah I know physics is kind of hard, and it has taken us centuries to reach our present level of knowledge, and we know we’re still a long way from complete knowledge of time and space.

Is the Universe Made of Math? Part 1: The Unreasonable Tool

January 10, 2026

Imagine you walk into a parking lot full of cars. You have in your pocket one single key. It’s the key to your car. The same key you’ve always used, the same key you’ve always trusted, the same key that you always manage to realize that you’ve lost right when you’re rushing out the door.

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