Science News BS Heat Map, June 26, 2026

 

                         

Recent Science News Article	BS Rating	Comment
"Did two physicists just upend decades of cosmology research?"		A long-standing dogma of cosmology is a "cosmological principle," the idea that the universe looks the same on a large scale, no matter which direction you look in. But in the article we read, "A new paper published Wednesday in Nature by two physicists calls the cosmological principle into question. They argue that the universe’s structures do look significantly different depending on the direction you look. 'In this survey, we find there are large-scale structures which define special directions,' says Francesco Sylos Labini, a physicist at the Enrico Fermi Research Center in Rome, Italy and one of the study’s authors." The paper's finding will be resisted because it conflicts with a long-held but groundless dogma of cosmology, the idea that there was an instant of "primordial cosmic inflation" during a fraction of the universe's first second. Uncertainty here causes me to give a rating suggesting a result something less than rock-solid.
"Mars life search gets boost as rover test distinguishes mirrored biosignature molecules"		That headline sure sounds like something encouraging came up in the search for life on Mars, does it not? But the article is reporting nothing of the sort. It's just a Mars rover doing some analysis of biologically irrelevant molecules.
"Nasa rover detects potential signatures of ancient microbial life on Mars."		The headline is not justified, because all that is being reported on is the lackluster paper here. That paper does not mention a discovery of any building component of life, and does not mention a detection of amino acids or nucleobases (which have never been found on Mars). All that's going on is that scientists are speculating that what they observed might have been "macromolecular carbon" or MMC. There are 1001 ways to get such carbon without life ever arising. The authors state, "We explored the possibility of instrument background, inorganic Raman peak contributions from minerals and hydration, and terrestrial organic contamination. Ultimately...We conclude that MMC is the most parsimonious explanation for this feature." So it's no actual detection of such "macromolecular carbon," but just a guess about such a thing. Later (in a section very misleadingly entitled "Astrobiologically compelling sample") the authors confess, "The presence of MMC reported in this work cannot be ascribed at this time to any specific formation mechanism; biological, geological, and meteoritic sources of the organics observed are all possible."
"Great apes (including us) have been giggling for 15 million years."		We have the false claim that humans are apes. We also have a repetition of this long-taught falsehood:  "We share 98.9 percent percent of our DNA with many of our primate cousins." The difference between human genomes and that of the animals with the closest similarity (chimpanzees) is actually more like 14% rather than just 1.1%. Of course, we cannot tell whether animals ever laughed millions of years ago.
"It’s very exciting." An astronomer has seen light from just after the birth of the Universe. Now he's sharing it with the world."		Wow, that sure sounds exciting, does it not? But nothing new has occurred. The "light" mentioned is not actually light, but microwave radiation. And it's not from "just after the birth of the universe" but from 380,000 years after the birth of the universe.  This radiation (called the cosmic background radiation) was discovered in the 1960's. So the "new discovery" sound of the title is very misleading.
"A Physicist Made a 'Mini Universe' in The Lab to Check Time Really Exists"		No, the scientist sure as hell did not do any such thing. All he did was concentrate a little matter in a lab. We have not just an article writer falsely mentioning a "mini-universe," but also a physicist groundlessly using that term.
"We've just found the Universe's darkest galaxy – and it could solve one of the last, great mysteries in science."		A claim is made that some galaxy was found with "99.9 percent dark matter." The claim is groundless. Dark matter has never been observed, and all claims about the abundance of this supposedly invisible substance in particular galaxies are very dubious examples of guesswork. The claimed "galaxy" is not even a galaxy, but a mere group of four globular clusters, objects about a thousandth as massive as a galaxy.  The claim of the article that some mystery involving dark matter is one of the "last great mysteries in science" could not be be more false. Almost everywhere nature and reality present the most gigantic mysteries which science has failed to solve. Scientists and science journalists who fail to perceive this are those who have deluded themselves that they understand great mysteries that are a thousand miles over their heads.
"Research Suggests the Older You Get, the More Weed You Should Smoke"		In this article at Futurism.com, we get no research results backing up this claim. We merely hear of a paper that involved only cells, one claiming some benefits to cells, without showing any relation between marijuana use and brain decline. Another paper reviewing 26 studies states, "Although variability in the cannabis products used, outcomes assessed, and study quality limits the conclusions that can be made, modest reductions in cognitive performance were generally detected with higher doses and heavier lifetime use." It's a conclusion the opposite of what is reported in the Futurism article.