Top all-time · #208
Sabine Hossenfelder
Personal blog · backreaction.blogspot.comsciencephilosophy
Sabine Hossenfelder's personal blog at backreaction.blogspot.com covers science and philosophy. Since 2007, 223 different Hacker News readers have linked it 501 times, most often “Nonsense arguments for building a bigger particle collider”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-01, and you can follow it by feed.
Rarely recommended · 2 of 40 sampled comments recommend it, 3 are critical?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Sabine Hossenfelder's blog as a source in physics debates on LIGO, fusion, dark matter and superdeterminism. Some comments praise her explanations, while others say her LIGO writing is slanted.
- Recommended for · 2 comments
- One commenter says she explains the problems with fusion reporting well; another says she explains superdeterminism much better than the commenter can.
- Criticised for · 3 comments
- One commenter says her LIGO posts cast shade with rhetorical tricks; another says her LIGO claim doesn't hold.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Science News, Physics, Science, Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
Most-linked posts?
- Nonsense arguments for building a bigger particle collider8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2019-03-29
- The Truth About Nuclear Fusion Q Factors7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2021-10-02
- How I fell out of love with academia4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2007-12-31
- /2019/09/whats-up-with-ligo.html4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-09-18
- What Is “Nothing”?4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2022-09-24
- The Multiworse Is Coming4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2018-03-13
- /4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-11-20
- No, negative masses have not revolutionized cosmology4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2018-12-07
- The delayed choice quantum eraser, debunked4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-10-31
- What’s Up with LIGO?3 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2019-09-04
What Hacker News says?
Sabine Hossenfelder has a great quote about this: > Science tells us what situation we are in and what consequences our actions are likely to have, but it does not tell us what to do. Science does not say you shouldn’t pee on high voltage lines, it says urine is an excellent conductor. http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2020/09/follow-science-nons...
Comment linking /2020/09/follow-science-nonsense-i-say.html?m=1
on “YouTube to remove content that alleges widespread election fraud”Submitted Outraged about the Google diversity memo? as a story · 571 points
HN discussion> and battery storage. A note for all who might take issue with battery storage as too expensive, alternatives - albeit with lower efficiency - exist; hydro pumping, storing it in air turbines (8-9 hours, 95% efficiency iirc), even compressing air (this one goes to 85% efficiency iirc). http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2022/08/no-sun-no-wind-now-...
Comment linking /2022/08/no-sun-no-wind-now-what-renewable.html
on “Patagonia founder gives away the company”Submitted The Multiworse Is Coming as a story · 482 points
HN discussionThis is such a great thread, I'm excited to begin reading quite a few of the linked blogs (such as this one: https://acoup.blog/ ). These ones are some of my favorites: - www.wall.org/~aron/blog/ (physics, theology, history, philosophy) - http://xahlee.info/ (math, emacs, keyboards, etc.) - https://matt.might.net/articles/ (academy, compsci, etc.) - https://www.joelonsoftware.com/ (programming, companies, etc.) - ht…
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Favorite Blogs by Individuals?”Submitted I stopped working on black hole information loss as a story · 461 points
HN discussionMatt Levine on Bloomberg for everything finance: While I am only medium interested in finance, Matt Levine makes it all sound farcical. It is usually a fun read, and I learn something about how the world runs (or usually in which creative ways people abused the way the world runs) https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/authors/ARbTQlRLRjE/matthe... Derek Lowe on medicine. He is an absolute expert on the topic, but doesn'…
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Favorite Blogs by Individuals?”Submitted Do we really travel through time with the speed of light? as a story · 354 points
HN discussionI have some, let me know which ones you like, I might have more suggestions for you! In no particular order: Lex Friedman podcast, lots of scientific interviews: https://youtube.com/c/lexfridman Crecganford, This one I discovered recently, expert in ancient and prehistoric mythology: https://youtube.com/c/Crecganford Isaac Arthur, science and futurism, some sci-fi, but very very stimulating: https://youtube.com/chan…
Comment linking /?m=1
on “Ask HN: YouTube Channels for the Intellectually Curious”Submitted Whatever happened to the bee apocalypse? as a story · 318 points
HN discussionGlad we mostly agree :) > I doubt you think it's true: "Before a measurement takes place, the movement of electrons is predicted by a deterministic equation, there is no probability." That sentence goes against conventional wisdom so I doubt you meant it litterally. I meant that very literally, and it is very important to understand. Quantum mechanics contains two fundamental postulates: 1. The Schrodinger equation:…
Comment linking /2019/10/what-is-quantum-measurement-problem.html
on “Atomic resolution video of salt crystals forming in real time”Submitted The LHC “nightmare scenario” has come true as a story · 311 points
HN discussionAccording to Sabine Hossenfelder, ITER will only actually generate 0.57 of what's put in. The large number out isn't the full story. http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2021/10/how-close-is-nuclea... > You have seen in the earlier quotes about ITER that the energy input is normally said to be 50 MegaWatts. But according to the head of the Electrical Engineering Division of the ITER Project, Ivone Benfatto, ITER will co…
Comment linking /2021/10/how-close-is-nuclear-fusion-power.html
on “Major nuclear fusion milestone reached as ‘ignition’ triggered in a lab”Submitted Quantum winter is coming as a story · 297 points
HN discussionWe're still a very long way off. Sabine Hossenfelder has a good explanation of what's wrong with most reporting on progress toward fusion: http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2021/10/how-close-is-nuclea... edit: not sure why this was downvoted, it's directly relevant and the video and transcript discuss this experiment. It quotes Arthur Turrell: "This phenomenal breakthrough brings us tantalisingly close to a demonstra…
Comment linking /2021/10/how-close-is-nuclear-fusion-power.html
on “Major nuclear fusion milestone reached as ‘ignition’ triggered in a lab”Submitted Dark matter nightmare: What if we are just using the wrong equations? as a story · 262 points
HN discussionProbably just "plasma breakeven" Sabine talks about the issue. [1] https://backreaction.blogspot.com/2021/10/how-close-is-nucle...
Comment linking /2021/10/how-close-is-nuclear-fusion-power.html
on “Major nuclear fusion milestone reached as ‘ignition’ triggered in a lab”Submitted Why does science news suck so much? as a story · 259 points
HN discussionWhen you look at pictures like [1] it's very hard to accept a kind of galactic-cluster level atmosphere that would produce that type of lensing. You're also ignoring the observed clock differences between clocks in LEO and clocks on the ground - which happen to have the exact values predicted by GR. And these are just some of the more neatly observable consequences of GR. There are many others that are more sophisti…
Comment linking /2019/10/dark-matter-nightmare-what-if-we-just.html
on “Evidence that the key assumption made in discovery of dark energy is in error”Submitted The present phase of stagnation in the foundations of physics is not normal as a story · 251 points
HN discussion> Given that there have been exactly zero experiments conducted in laboratories close to black holes, isn't that qualifier kind of a cop-out? No, I don't think it is. I agree of course that it's hard to test predictions regarding black holes. But I was addressing OP's statement that > For example, you can use string theory to study the structure and behavior of black holes and holography, something called AdS/CFT, a…
Comment linking /2020/01/how-to-test-quantum-gravity.html
on “20 Years Later”Submitted Did the W-boson just “break the standard model”? as a story · 248 points
HN discussionThanks, I think I get the spacetime part. I was not very clear previously. Here is the transcript of the YT video I was referring to: > Next, Einstein also showed that if you have any particle which moves slower than the speed of light, then you cannot accelerate it to faster than the speed of light. You cannot do that because it would take an infinite amount of energy. And this is why you often hear that the speed…
Comment linking /2020/05/is-faster-than-light-travel-possible.html
on “Galactica: an AI trained on humanity's scientific knowledge (by Meta)”Submitted In the foundations of physics we haven't seen progress for the past four decades as a story · 237 points
HN discussionInteresting rebuttal from someone in the field (who is actually quoted in the paper): http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2018/12/no-negative-masses-...
Comment linking /2018/12/no-negative-masses-have-not.html
on “'Dark fluid' with negative mass could dominate the universe”Submitted Particle physics may have reached the end of the line as a story · 224 points
HN discussionhttp://backreaction.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-bullet-cluster-...
Comment linking /2017/01/the-bullet-cluster-as-evidence-against.html
on “'Dark fluid' with negative mass could dominate the universe”Submitted We don't know how the universe began, and we will never know as a story · 220 points
HN discussionI said nothing about impossible. I was discussing whether 'we will discover some process in the universe as it is that favors matter over anti-matter' is a useful working hypothesis, and my claim is that it is not. Of course, it is possible that one exists, just like expansion of space (which probably does exist, though apparently there are starting to be reasons to doubt that [0]) turns out to be a way to break con…
Comment linking /2021/09/new-evidence-against-standard-model-of.html
on “Scientists create matter from pure light, proving the Breit-Wheeler effect”Submitted Dark Matter: The Situation Has Changed as a story · 218 points
HN discussion
