VIP-2 experiment narrows the search for exotic physics beyond the Pauli exclusion principle

Feb 5, 2026

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The Pauli exclusion principle is a cornerstone of the Standard Model of particle physics and is essential for the structure and stability of matter. Now an international collaboration of physicists has carried out one of the most stringent experimental tests to date of this foundational rule of quantum physics and has found no evidence of its violation. Using the VIP-2 experiment, the team has set the strongest limits so far for possible violations involving electrons in atomic systems, significantly constraining a range of speculative theories beyond the Standard Model, including those that suggest electrons have internal structure, and so-called ‘Quon models.’ Their experiment, which was partially supported by the Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI, was reported in Scientific Reports in November 2025.

A twitch in time? Quantum collapse models hint at tiny time fluctuations

Jan 20, 2026

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Quantum mechanics is rich with paradoxes and contradictions. It describes a microscopic world in which particles exist in a superposition of states–being in multiple places and configurations all at once, defined mathematically by what physicists call a ‘wavefunction.’ But this runs counter to our everyday experience of objects that are either here or there, never both at the same time. Typically, physicists manage this conflict by arguing that, when a quantum system comes into contact with a measuring device or an experimental observer, the system’s wavefunction ‘collapses’ into a single, definite state. Now, with support from the Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI, an international team of physicists has shown that a family of unconventional solutions to this measurement problem–called ‘quantum collapse models’–has far-reaching implications for the nature of time and for clock precision. They published their results suggesting a new way to distinguish these rival models from standard quantum theory, in Physical Review Research, in November 2025.

What happened before the Big Bang?

Aug 20, 2025

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We’re often told it is “unscientific” or “meaningless” to ask what happened before the big bang. But a new paper by FQxI cosmologist Eugene Lim, of King’s College London, UK, and astrophysicists Katy Clough, of Queen Mary University of London, UK, and Josu Aurrekoetxea, at Oxford University, UK, published in Living Reviews in Relativity, in June 2025, proposes a way forward: using complex computer simulations to numerically (rather than exactly) solve Einstein’s equations for gravity in extreme situations. The team argues that numerical relativity should be applied increasingly in cosmology to probe some of the universe’s biggest questions-including what happened before the big bang, whether we live in a multiverse, if our universe has collided with a neighboring cosmos, or whether our universe cycled through a series of bangs and crunches.

US$53,000 essay competition asks: "How Quantum is Life?"

Jun 24, 2025

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In 1944, Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger published his book What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell, an early landmark in an ongoing–if sometimes controversial–conversation between quantum mechanics, the weird theory that governs the microrealm, and biology. Schrödinger is one of the founding figures of quantum mechanics, having postulated his now-famed quantum equation, a century ago, in 1925. In honor of the discovery of quantum mechanics, this year has been proclaimed the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology by the United Nations General Assembly, led by UNESCO. To celebrate, the Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI, in partnership with the Paradox Science Institute, has launched a US$53,000 essay competition to expand on Schrödinger’s fascination with the connections between quantum theory and biological processes. The competition, which opens for submissions on 23rd June, 2025, asks participants to ponder the question: how quantum is life?

Out of the string theory swampland

Jun 9, 2025

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String theory has long been touted as physicists’ best candidate for describing the fundamental nature of the universe, with elementary particles and forces described as vibrations of tiny threads of energy. But in the early 21st century, it was realized that most of the versions of reality described by string theory’s equations cannot match up with observations of our own universe. In particular, conventional string theory’s predictions are incompatible with the observation of dark energy, which appears to be causing our universe’s expansion to speed up, and with viable theories of quantum gravity, instead predicting a vast ‘swampland’ of impossible universes. Now, a new analysis by FQxI physicist Eduardo Guendelman, of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in Israel, shows that an exotic subset of string models-in which the tension of strings is generated dynamically-could provide an escape route out of the string theory swampland. The analysis was reported in The European Physical Journal C, in March.

A landscape of consciousness

Oct 28, 2024

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“Out of meat, how do you get thought? That’s the grandest question.” So said philosopher Patricia Churchland to Robert Lawrence Kuhn, the producer and host of the acclaimed PBS program, Closer to Truth. Now Kuhn, a member of FQxI’s scientific advisory council, has published a taxonomy of proposed solutions to, and theories regarding, the hard problem of consciousness. He produced the organizing framework in order to explore their impact on meaning, purpose and value (if any), AI consciousness, virtual immortality, survival beyond death, and free will. Kuhn’s ‘landscape of consciousness’ was published in the journal Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology in its August 2024 issue.

Shining a light on the roots of plant “intelligence”

Sep 19, 2024

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All living organisms emit a low level of light radiation, but the origin and function of these ‘biophotons’ are not yet fully understood. An international team of physicists, funded by the Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI, has proposed a new approach for investigating this phenomenon based on statistical analyses of this emission. Their aim is to test whether biophotons can play a role in the transport of information within and between living organisms, and whether monitoring biophotons could contribute to the development of medical techniques for the early diagnosis of various diseases. Their analyses of the measurements of the faint glow emitted by lentil seeds support models for the emergence of a kind of plant ‘intelligence,’ in which the biophotonic emission carries information and may thus be used by plants as a means to communicate. The team reported this and reviewed the history of biophotons in an article in the journal Applied Sciences in June 2024.

X-rays from atomic systems could reveal new clues about rival quantum theories

Sep 9, 2024

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The apparent weirdness of the quantum world is often exemplified by the paradox of Schrödinger’s imaginary cat that exists in a limbo state of being both alive and dead until looked upon by an observer. But in the real world we never encounter such zombie felines. Quantum effects do not seem to extend to very large objects-like cats, people or houses-and physicists do not agree on exactly why not. Now, an international team of scientists, funded by the Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI, has proposed a new and refined way to test the validity of some proposed alternative models to standard quantum theory, which offer a possible explanation. Their work was reported in the journal Physical Review Letters in June 2024.

The Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI, appoints Pinar Emirdag to Board of Directors

May 3, 2024

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The Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI, a philanthropically-funded science funding agency and think tank, is delighted to announce that Dr Pinar Emirdag has been appointed to the Institute’s Board of Directors. Emirdag, a financial services executive and entrepreneur, is currently director of Hupomone Ventures, having previously spearheaded industry-changing initiatives at institutions such as JP Morgan, Citi and the London Stock Exchange and at start-ups including Lava Trading and Clearmatics.

US$40,000 FQxI competition asks: "Is science broken?"

Feb 14, 2023

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Since its inception in 2006, the Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI has awarded US$400,000 in prizes, in 10 essay competitions, to 191 winners, on topics ranging from the nature of time to how humanity should steer the future. This year’s competition asks: how could science be different? The total prize pot is $40,000.

Underground Italian lab searches for signals of quantum gravity

Dec 16, 2022

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For decades physicists have been hunting for a quantum-gravity model that would unify quantum physics, the laws that govern the very small, and gravity. One major obstacle has been the difficulty in testing the predictions of candidate models experimentally. But some of the models predict an effect that can be probed in the lab: a very small violation of a fundamental quantum tenet called the Pauli exclusion principle, which determines, for instance, how electrons are arranged in atoms. An FQxI-funded project carried out at the INFN underground laboratories under the Gran Sasso mountains in Italy, has been searching for signs of radiation produced by such a violation, in the form of atomic transitions forbidden by the Pauli exclusion principle. In two papers appearing in the journals Physical Review Letters (published on 19th September 2022) and Physical Review D (accepted for publication on 7th December 2022) the team reports that no evidence of violation has been found, thus far, ruling out some quantum-gravity models.

Mini-engine exploits noise to convert information into fuel

Nov 14, 2022

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Too much background noise is usually guaranteed to disrupt work. But FQxI-funded physicists have developed a micro-scale engine–made from a glass bead–that can not only withstand the distracting influence of noise, but can harness it to run efficiently. Their experiment is reported in the journal Physical Review Letters and was selected by the journal as a research highlight.

Master equation to boost quantum technologies

Aug 26, 2022

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As the size of modern technology shrinks down to the nanoscale, weird quantum effects–such as quantum tunneling, superposition, and entanglement–become prominent. This opens the door to a new era of quantum technologies, where quantum effects can be exploited. Many everyday technologies make use of feedback control routinely; an important example is the pacemaker, which must monitor the user’s heartbeat and apply electrical signals to control it, only when needed. But physicists do not yet have an equivalent understanding of feedback control at the quantum level. Now, FQxI-funded physicists have developed a “master equation” that will help engineers understand feedback at the quantum scale. Their results are published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

A ‘beyond-quantum’ equivalence principle for superposition and entanglement

May 1, 2022

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The physics of the microrealm involves two famous and bizarre concepts: The first is that prior to observation, it is impossible to know with certainty the outcome of a measurement on a particle; rather the particle exists in a ‘superposition’ encompassing multiple mutually exclusive states. So a particle can be in two or more places at the same time, and you can only calculate the probability of finding it in a certain location when you look. The second involves ‘entanglement,’ the spooky link that can unite two objects, no matter how far they are separated. Both superposition and entanglement are described mathematically by quantum theory. But many physicists believe that the ultimate theory of reality may lie beyond quantum theory. Now, a team of physicists and mathematicians has discovered a new connection between these two weird properties that does not assume that quantum theory is correct. Their FQxI-funded study appears in Physical Review Letters and has been selected as an Editors’ Suggestion by the journal.

Is the ‘fine-tuned universe’ an illusion?

Feb 7, 2022

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For decades physicists have been perplexed about why our cosmos appears to have been precisely tuned to foster intelligent life. It is widely thought that if the values of certain physical parameters, such as the masses of elementary particles, were tweaked, even slightly, it would have prevented the formation of the components necessary for life in the universe — including planets, stars, and galaxies. But recent studies, detailed in a new report by the Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI, propose that intelligent life could have evolved under drastically different physical conditions. The claim undermines a major argument in support of the existence of a multiverse of parallel universes.