What's Wrong With (Fundamental) Physics? | Sabine Hossenfelder

In today's episode of Theories of Everything, Curt Jaimungal speaks with physicist Sabine Hossenfelder to cover what's truly wrong with fundamental physics. Together, they uncover why long-standing problems linger, why essential data remain elusive, and how systemic pressures are stifling meaningful breakthroughs.

Links Mentions:
•⁠ Sabine's Crisis in Science Series:

Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction to the Physics Crisis
03:29 - The Role of Experiment in Physics
06:21 - Internal Contradictions in Quantum Gravity
08:21 - Progress in Theoretical Physics
11:01 - Serendipity and Discovery in Research
12:09 - The Role of Funding in Physics
15:33 - Overproduction of Models in Academia
18:16 - Focus on Solving Inconsistencies
19:51 - The Crisis in Science
32:32 - Overhyping Research Possibilities
37:27 - Mistrust in Science and Academia
42:08 - Humor in Science Communication
57:46 - Addressing Problems in Academia
58:56 - The Scientific Underground and Job Market
1:02:29 - Academic Exodus
1:05:42 - Critique and Counterpoints
1:07:28 - The Irony of Theory Development
1:12:46 - The Scientific Underground
1:15:58 - The Crisis of Scientific Progress
1:28:31 - Challenges of Quantum Gravity
1:31:59 - The Special Issues Dilemma
1:42:10 - AI Episode Recap! (Brought to you by The Economist)

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#science #podcast #physics #theoreticalphysics

[cranieldaig]

It’s nice to see Sabine acting naturally! Her honesty permeates throughout this conversation. Huge respect to the pair of you, appreciate the upload massively

[manuelgrewer]

Great interview. Sabines point about always go to the original source is so true. When I was doing my PHD about the plasticity of nanocrystalline metals, there were many papers citing old plasticity works from the 1930s to 1960s. And the old guys didn't mess around. The information density was so high, you really had to read carefully to not miss something important. In my case, I found that about 60% of the newer puplications were citing the old stuff wrong! Which meant, that about 60% of the list of publications I had compiled to back up my own claims just went up in smoke. Very frustrating! But it's ok, I never learned so much in a short period of time. And it gave me a new apreciation for "older" scientific works.

[giovannironchi]

Thanks you Kurt and Sabine for this interview!

[mr_io]

This was an absolute joy for someone who follows both these exquisite human beings. As a computational neuroscience this resonates on so many levels especially around 1:00:00

[makidominguez]

Possibly one of the most rational voices in Physics today. Brava Frau Hossenfelder!

[jasonl]

I’ve seen other videos of interviews with Sabine and she is less chipper. I like her here, which shows that she and Curt have a good connection with each other.

[lus]

Nice listening to Sabine when she is in a more relaxed mode.

[NomenNescio]

Yay, Sabine is always refreshing.

But I wish her youtube channel still was like it used to be, when she actually talked about physics.

[sxspeed]

Sabine is my favourite ambassador of science and physics!

[lancimusprime]

I love Sabine. She is one of the best!

[Sidionian]

Thank you both to TOE and Sabine for this fascinating exchange.

[philip_hofmaenner]

Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm just an interested layman), but aren't we experiencing the normal state of science regarding physics, when viewed over a long period of history? Maybe we were just lucky in the first half of the 20th century to made this huge jump, but there have always been entire centuries without groundbreaking discoveries but slow incremental progress and lots of set backs.

[kaidenmar]

Two of my favorite channels; I've been looking forward to this interview/crossover for a while!

[alpheuswoodley]

They mention jokes in passing, then it turns into an extraordinary and authentic conversation. Pure gold.

[etcxg]

Sabine Hossenfelder holds a special place in my heart. She is a top-tier science communicator and stands for everything I believe practitioners of science ought to strive for! Watching this discussion was an especially wonderful experience. Thank you Mr. Jaimungal, as always.

[calvingrondahl]

Sabine uses humor effectively as did Albert Einstein. Honesty and humor go hand in hand. Albert admitted being wrong. Albert died when I was 5 years old.

[emdgheh]

Decades without awnsers, thats not too bad.
How long did we go between Newton and Einstein ??
And realistically it was Newton that solved it, Einstein just gave us the mechanism and reason Newton was right.

[williamrunner]

This is the kind of videos I really appreciate Curt! Great guest and great questions!

[tod]

So great to hear Sabine in long form conversation. Thanks for putting this together. Would love to see you have her back again sometime. Fundamental physics is so fascinating because I can actually approach some essential understanding by self study without physics being my job.

[surrendertoflow]

Sabine is spot on with her criticisms of academia and where the problems lie. I was a neuroscientist and left academia in large part because I saw firsthand what she’s calling out. But back in my day, there was no one around for me to talk to about what I was seeing. I wish I’d had Sabine then! One thing she doesn’t speak directly about is the lack of integrity that the publish or perish model promotes (almost requires even). It’s not like I was directly told to lie exactly but I was told to only include my positive results because it supported the story and was less “confusing” for the reader. All of that plus the fact that I was witnessing fantastic scientists get stuck as post docs for 8+ years (at Stanford!) with no where to go and I am female (which presents it’s own problems in so many ways), resulted in me deciding that I had to go. But I’m a scientist at heart and love podcasts like these to keep me connected to what I’m passionate about. It still stings really. It was a heartbreaking experience. Science is losing some of those with the most integrity. Please keep this topic alive. It needs to change. I couldn’t stomach it long enough to change it from the inside.