www.discovermagazine.com
One of the curious features of Taylor Swifts work is that she regularly uses words borrowed from astronomy and cosmology. Taylor Swifts discography frequently incorporates astrophysics terminology, point out Sophie Newman and Ana Sainz de Murieta at the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth in the U.K. That reflects the role that science and technology play in shaping cultural phenomena. But for Swifties, it also raises the question of which areas of astrophysics most influence Swifts work. And for scientists, the possibility of whether this process of cultural osmosis could work in reverse to influence cosmological discoveries. Could Taylor Swifts thirteenth album hold the secret to the universes ultimate destiny? asks Jane Bright at the Department of Physics at Grinnell College in Iowa.Cosmic ChorusThanks to the work of Newman and Sainz de Murieta in one paper and of Bright in another, we now have answers suitable for the traditional early April publishing season.It turns out that Swifts astrophysical predilections can be inferred by analyzing word frequencies in her discography. We categorize words into various disciplines of astrophysics and find that multimessenger astronomy is promoted the most, both in Swifts total discography and throughout the Eras tour, say Newman and Sainz de Murieta. (Multimessenger astronomy combines data from several types of astronomical signals, such as light, gravitational waves, neutrinos and so on.) Bright goes further by mapping key characteristics and transitions in the universes history to corresponding themes and milestones in Swifts career. In this way, she can map cosmological eras to Swift eras. For example, Swifts reputation album maps to the cosmic dark ages about 500,000 years after the Big Bang when hydrogen atoms first formed but before stars had begun to shine, leaving the universe largely dark. reputation similarly felt like a period of darkness for Taylor, marked by media scrutiny, public feuds, and a deliberate withdrawal from the public eye, says Bright.And The Tortured Poets Department album maps to the period of reionization in the universe between 150 million and 1 billion years after the big bang. This is when the first stars began to shine and their light caused neutral atoms to become ionized. The Tortured Poets Department feels like a period of intense emotional and creative reionization for Swift, says Bright. Most striking of all is Brights prediction that Swifts next album, her 13th, will map to the final fate of the universe, which Bright says is not yet paired with any of Swifts other work. Astrophysicists have not yet determined how the universe will end. They speculate that it could be in a Big Freeze as the universe cools, becomes cold, empty and dark; it could be in the Big Rip where the inexorable expansion of the universe tears space-times apart; it could be in the Big Crunch where the universe collapses back on itself in a kind of reverse Big Bang.Nobody knows. But Swift might hold the key. As Bright points out: Lets be honest, if anyone is destined to hold the key to the universes fate, it might just be her.Signs of LifeA host of equally significant advances complements these important works. Not least of which is the discovery of evidence pointing to an advanced technical civilization on exoplanet GJ 1132b, which is about 1.6 times the mass of Earth and orbiting a red dwarf star some 41 light years away in the constellation of Vela.Frederic Hessman at the University of Gottingen in Germany, and colleagues, say spectroscopic analysis of the exoplanet reveals copious amounts of an unusual substance in the atmosphere. We report the detection of whisky in the atmosphere of the extrasolar super-Earth planet GJ 1132b, say the team. They point out that this cannot be explained by natural processes and therefore implies the existence of a technically advanced civilization engaged in massive distilling operations. The reason for the necessarily vast scale of production is either to produce rocket fuel for an interplanetary economy or, more likely, for an unusually high level of personal consumption.Interestingly, Hessman and co speculate that their discovery provides a compelling resolution to the Fermi Paradox of the seemingly high probability of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe and the lack of any evidence for it. Or as Fermi put it: where is everybody? Hessman and co provide the answer: a technically versed civilization would be incapable of achieving the higher technical levels necessary for the development of a detectable radio signature much less interstellar travel at the suggested rates of consumption.Clearly, important results (hic), published to the arXiv on 1 April 2025.References: The Eras Tour: Mapping the Eras of Taylor Swift to the Cosmological Eras of the Universe : arxiv.org/abs/2503.22795A Swift analysis of the Eras tour set list and implications for astrophysics research (Taylor's version) : arxiv.org/abs/2503.24188Detection of an extraterrestrial technical civilisation on the extrasolar planet GJ 1132b : arxiv.org/abs/2503.23788Other notable papers include:What is the Funniest Number? An investigation of numerical humor : arxiv.org/abs/2503.24175Higher multipoles of the cow : arxiv.org/abs/2504.00506The Universe is Odd : arxiv.org/abs/2503.22839Definitive Proof of the Classical Multiverse!: arxiv.org/abs/2503.22768PromoPlot: Covering open-access fees by filling wasted space in corner plots : arxiv.org/abs/2503.24254
