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Explorations in Science and AI


How string theory lost its strings
String theory was once hailed as the “theory of everything” — a unified model of nature built on tiny vibrating strings. But after decades of expansion, the field has evolved beyond its namesake, embracing branes, dualities, and abstract geometry. Some physicists now wonder: is it time to rename the theory entirely?


How string theory lost its strings
String theory was once hailed as the “theory of everything” — a unified model of nature built on tiny vibrating strings. But after decades of expansion, the field has evolved beyond its namesake, embracing branes, dualities, and abstract geometry. Some physicists now wonder: is it time to rename the theory entirely?
Colin Hunter
Jul 3, 2025


Ethan Siegel
Apr 15, 2025


FirstPrinciples
Apr 1, 2025


Matt von Hippel
Mar 27, 2025


Colin Hunter
Feb 20, 2025


How string theory lost its strings
String theory was once hailed as the “theory of everything” — a unified model of nature built on tiny vibrating strings. But after decades of expansion, the field has evolved beyond its namesake, embracing branes, dualities, and abstract geometry. Some physicists now wonder: is it time to rename the theory entirely?
Colin Hunter


Matt von Hippel
Latest Articles


Between tools and theory: Reflections from the Machine Learning and the Physical Sciences workshop, NeurIPS 2025
A reflection on ML4PS 2025, where researchers in physics and machine learning grappled with the role AI should play in scientific discovery, and what it would take to move from process acceleration toward deeper scientific insight.

FirstPrinciples
Jan 28


AI and openness at CERN: FirstPrinciples demos the AI Physicist at the Open Science Fair
FirstPrinciples presented an early demo of its AI Physicist at the Open Science Fair, held this year at CERN. The event sparked conversations on trust, openness, and the role of AI in research, underscoring how collaboration will shape the future of discovery.

FirstPrinciples
Sep 30, 2025


Chain-of-thought seen as key to AI safety, but experts warn it’s fragile
Chain-of-thought reasoning has become a rare interface between human and machine logic. But a new paper warns that the window may be closing.

FirstPrinciples
Sep 11, 2025


The physics of AI hallucination: New research reveals the tipping point for large language models
Physicist Neil Johnson has mapped the exact moment AI can flip from accurate to false, and he says understanding the physics could be the key to safer systems.
Colin Hunter
Sep 3, 2025


Bridging minds and disciplines: The IAIFI Summer School and the future of collaborative science
At the intersection of artificial intelligence and fundamental physics, the NSF Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions (IAIFI) is preparing scientists to learn, think and understand at the deepest levels. In its latest week-long Summer School program, students explored frontier challenges through lectures, tutorials, and collaborative hackathons, testing how AI can shape the future of physics, and how physics can push the boundaries of AI.

FirstPrinciples
Aug 15, 2025


New AI models and the benchmark paradox
Z.ai's new open-source model and Harmonic's math-native chatbot highlight contrasting strategies for AI reasoning, while a new wave of increasingly specialized benchmarks invites us to rethink how we measure progress.

FirstPrinciples
Aug 7, 2025


AI enters the scientific loop: Simulation, integrity, and the rise of open reasoning
From prompt injection to physics simulators and open reasoning models, recent news shows that AI isn’t just accelerating science, it’s reshaping how it works. The question now, is will it deepen inquiry, or erode the principles on which credibility in science is built?

FirstPrinciples
Jul 30, 2025


Sabine Hossenfelder on AI, bad physics, and why science needs reform
She’s one of the internet’s sharpest scientific voices: equal parts physicist, critic, and communicator. In this candid conversation, Sabine Hossenfelder reflects on AI, the flood of low-impact theory papers, and how a scientific culture ripe for reform could finally be ready for change.
Colin Hunter
Jul 22, 2025


Peer review in the age of AI: When scientific judgement meets prompt injection
Hidden prompts buried in preprints show how easily large language models (LLMs) can be manipulated, exposing a deep vulnerability in science’s quality-control system. As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes part of the scientific review process, traceability and transparency must become new norms, not afterthoughts.

FirstPrinciples
Jul 16, 2025


AI faces a tough physics exam: New benchmark reveals the challenge
Large language models have advanced dramatically in recent years, yet when physicists gave them an undergraduate-level test, even the best models were only correct on around one out of every three questions. The new PhysUniBench benchmark exposes how far AI still has to go in mastering fundamental science.

FirstPrinciples
Jul 9, 2025


Prediction isn’t understanding: AI’s evolution and the soul of science
From rule-based ‘expert systems’ to neural networks, AI has long chased the dream of scientific reasoning. But while today’s models are good at pattern matching and can generate code or summarize academic papers, they struggle with the heart of scientific discovery: structured reasoning.

FirstPrinciples
Jun 11, 2025


Rise of the machine cosmologists
Scientists are using artificial intelligence and machine learning to tackle dark matter and other cosmic puzzles.

FirstPrinciples
Apr 24, 2025


Vaire Computing aims to tame the AI energy crisis
Could a new startup harness the laws of physics to build a computer chip that lessens the energy demands of artificial intelligence?

Matt von Hippel
Mar 27, 2025


In conversation: Jesse Thaler on AI and physics
A machine learning convert discusses the synergies between AI and physics, and the institute devoted to that fruitful intersection.

FirstPrinciples
Nov 1, 2024
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