3 Science Links - Gravity from Entropy, Einstein’s “Greatest Blunder”, Where Do We Come From?

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Love me a slice of science, especially gravity, entropy, and the big questions with enlightening answers.

New quantum gravity theory links entropy, dark energy, and life

via ScienceDaily, 20 July 2026

A new theoretical study offers a possible explanation for how the Universe can grow more complex without violating the second law of thermodynamics. Using a quantum gravity framework called Gravity from Entropy, mathematician Ginestra Bianconi found that the Universe’s total entropy may rise as space expands, even while entropy within each unit of volume falls. That decline could leave room for galaxies, stars, planets, and life to form locally amid an overall increase in cosmic entropy.
I've read it a couple of times and I'm gonna need a couple more just to get my head around it - it involves gravity, and spacetime, and what is becoming my favourite thing that I hear underlying everything, entropy.

Einstein’s “Greatest Blunder” May Be Breaking Cosmology

by Paul Sutter, July 20, 2026


When asked my General Relativity field equations tattoo I always point out the Cosmological constant, represented by the Greek letter Lambda, that Einstein popped in so that the maths would give a static (not expanding or shrinking) universe. A mistake he made that now turns out to be something needed, "Even when he was wrong, he was right."
The LCDM (Lambda represents the cosmological constant, commonly associated with dark energy. CDM stands for cold dark matter, which provides most of the mass in nearly every galaxy) is enormously successful. It’s a relatively simple model: just a few free parameters and a couple of assumptions working within a framework of general relativity. And with that model, we are able to explain SO MUCH about the universe: its expansion history, the appearance of background radiation, the BAO feature, the growth of galaxies and large structures, and on and on and on. It’s one of the most well-studied and well-tested theories in ALL of science.

And it’s almost certainly wrong.

Science’s answer to the ultimate question: Where do we come from?

by Ethan Siegel, September 16, 2025

Science, remember, doesn’t give us the ultimate answers to our inquiries, it simply gives us the best approximation of reality, given our current state of knowledge, that is consistent with all the evidence we’ve collected to this point. We’ve come incredibly far in our quest to make sense of the Universe, and while there are still open questions that science is pursuing, the broad strokes — plus a great many details — of “where we come from” are finally known.

Ask A Spaceman podcast: Why Can’t We Get Free Energy from the Vacuum?

by Paul M. Sutter, July 22, 2025
Why does the vacuum of spacetime have energy? How much energy does it have? What prevents us from using it to do anything useful? I discuss these questions and more in this Ask a Spaceman! episode.

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