DiscoverBig ThinkPhysics: Are we forever trapped in the arrow of time? | Sabine Hossenfelder
Physics: Are we forever trapped in the arrow of time? | Sabine Hossenfelder

Physics: Are we forever trapped in the arrow of time? | Sabine Hossenfelder

Update: 2025-10-29
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Why does time move forward but not backward? Physicist Sabine Hossenfelder explains.

Why does time move in only one direction? This still-unsolved question was posed in 1927 by the British astrophysicist Arthur Eddington, and the concept came to be known as the arrow of time.

As theoretical physicist ‪@SabineHossenfelder‬ explains, there's a longstanding mystery in the foundations of physics: If we look at the laws for microscopic constituents, like elementary particles, they work the same way forward in time as they do backward in time. But the same does not hold true on macroscopic scales.

In this Big Think video, Hossenfelder dives into this mystery and explores how it has captivated the minds of so many scientists and science fiction writers.

0:00 The arrow of time
1:14 Why doesn’t anyone get younger?
2:39 Can we stop human aging with entropy control?
4:01 Is ‘maximum entropy’ how the universe will end?

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About Sabine Hossenfelder:
Sabine Hossenfelder is a physicist, author, and creator of "Science Without the Gobbledygook". She currently works at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy in Germany.

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Physics: Are we forever trapped in the arrow of time? | Sabine Hossenfelder

Physics: Are we forever trapped in the arrow of time? | Sabine Hossenfelder

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