Toggle light / dark theme

In 2024 a shockwave rippled through the astronomical world, shaking it to the core. The disturbance didn’t come from some astral disaster at the solar system’s doorstep, however. Rather it arrived via the careful analysis of many far-distant galaxies, which revealed new details of the universe’s evolution across eons of cosmic history. Against most experts’ expectations, the result suggested that dark energy —the mysterious force driving the universe’s accelerating expansion—was not an unwavering constant but rather a more fickle beast that was weakening over time.

The shocking claim’s source was the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), run by an international collaboration at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. And it was so surprising because cosmologists’ best explanations for the universe’s observed large-scale structure have long assumed that dark energy is a simple, steady thing. But as Joshua Frieman, a physicist at the University of Chicago, says: “We tend to stick with the simplest theory that works—until it doesn’t.” Heady with delight and confusion, theorists began scrambling to explain DESI’s findings and resurfaced old, more complex ideas shelved decades ago.

In March 2025 even more evidence accrued in favor of dark energy’s dynamic nature in DESI’s latest data release—this time from a much larger, multimillion-galaxy sample. Dark energy’s implied fading, it seemed, was refusing to fade away.

Is the nearest galaxy to ours being torn apart? Research suggests so. A team led by Satoya Nakano and Kengo Tachihara at Nagoya University in Japan has revealed new insights into the motion of massive stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a small galaxy neighboring the Milky Way. Their findings suggest that the gravitational pull of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the SMC’s larger companion, may be tearing the smaller one apart. This discovery reveals a new pattern in the motion of these stars that could transform our understanding of galaxy evolution and interactions. The results were published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.

“When we first got this result, we suspected that there might be an error in our method of analysis,” Tachihara said. “However, upon closer examination, the results are indisputable, and we were surprised.”

The SMC remains one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way. This proximity allowed the research team to identify and track approximately 7,000 massive stars within the galaxy. These stars, which are over eight times the mass of our Sun, typically survive for only a few million years before exploding as supernovae. Their presence indicates regions rich in hydrogen gas, a crucial component of star formation.

This extensive catalog spanning 11 billion years of cosmic history allows scientists to compare ancient galaxy structures with more recent ones, revealing evolutionary patterns in galaxy groups and their brightest central galaxies. The observations show a dramatic transformation: distant galaxies from the early universe appear irregular with active star formation, while those closer to our time have “quenched” star formation and developed more organised elliptical or spiral structures.

This groundbreaking JWST survey marks the beginning of a new era in understanding galactic evolution. With 1,700 galaxy groups identified across nearly the entire history of our universe, astronomers now have an unprecedented roadmap for further investigation. Future studies will explore the physics driving these transformations—from dark matter’s role in structural formation to how supermassive black holes influence their host galaxies. As researchers analyze this rich data, we can expect significant revisions to existing theories about galaxy formation and evolution.

Extract from “Evolution, Basal Cognition and Regenerative Medicine”, kindly contributed by Michael Levin in SEMF’s 2023 Interdisciplinary Summer School (https://semf.org.es/school2023/). Full talk: • Michael Levin | Evolution, Basal Cogn… TALK ABSTRACT Each of us has made the remarkable journey from a single cell (a quiescent oocyte) to a complex embodied mind. How do cells, which were once independent organisms, work together to pursue the anatomical and physiological goals that enable form and function to reliably self-assemble? In this talk, I will tell the story of the collective intelligence of cellular swarms that embodies William James’ definition of intelligence: same ends by different means. I will describe the amazing competencies of the morphogenetic process that builds bodies and minds, and our discoveries on bioelectricity — the cognitive glue that implements embryogenesis, regeneration, and cancer suppression. I will end with a perspective on how biophysical, informational, and behavioral sciences are coming together to redefine the boundaries of the possible in biomedicine and beyond. MICHAEL LEVIN Department of Biology, Tufts University: https://as.tufts.edu/biology Tufts University profile: https://ase.tufts.edu/biology/labs/le… Institute profile: https://wyss.harvard.edu/team/associa… Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael… ) Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?… Twitter: / drmichaellevin LinkedIn: / michael-levin-b0983a6 SEMF NETWORKS Website: https://semf.org.es Twitter: / semf_nexus LinkedIn: / semf-nexus Instagram: / semf.nexus Facebook: / semf.nexus

Over billions of years, the universe has transformed from a simpler state into an intricate cosmic web, but new research hints that the growth of cosmic structures may not have unfolded exactly as predicted.

Using data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, scientists compared ancient cosmic light with the modern distribution of galaxies, essentially creating a multidimensional cosmic timeline. Their findings reveal a slight but intriguing discrepancy: matter appears to be a bit less “clumpy” today than early models anticipated. While not definitive enough to rewrite physics, this subtle irregularity opens exciting possibilities about the mysterious forces, like dark energy, that could be subtly reshaping the universe.

The Cosmic Dance of Matter.