Limits to research in astrophysics
Abstract
Fundamental physics faces several intrinsic limitations, such as the finite speed of light in vacuum, the absolute zero temperature, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and so on. At the same time, the material resources necessary to conduct research in astrophysics, such as energy, fresh water, and rareearth elements, are also limited in both quantity and extraction capabilities, a concept often referred to as planetary boundaries. In the context of scientific research growing at a frenetic pace, following the greedy quenchless extractivist model of our era, and which is giving rise to an ever-increasing number of largescale, increasingly ambitious projects: what limits us, individually and collectively, in the practice of our occupation\,? In this conference proceeding, we discuss certain limiting factors we encounter in our daily work, which we need to reflect on collectively in order to move forward, toward a more sustainable and effective research that preserves the well-being of researchers, regardless of their career stage.
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BibTeX
@misc{cantalloube2026limits,
title = {{Limits to research in astrophysics}},
author = {F Cantalloube and C Noûs},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.04727},
eprint = {2611.04727},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.04727},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Limits to research in astrophysics
AU - F Cantalloube
AU - C No{û}s
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/03
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.04727
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.04727
AB - Fundamental physics faces several intrinsic limitations, such as the finite speed of light in vacuum, the absolute zero temperature, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and so on. At the same time, the material resources necessary to conduct research in astrophysics, such as energy, fresh water, and rareearth elements, are also limited in both quantity and extraction capabilities, a concept often referred to as planetary boundaries. In the context of scientific research growing at a frenetic pace, following the greedy quenchless extractivist model of our era, and which is giving rise to an ever-increasing number of largescale, increasingly ambitious projects: what limits us, individually and collectively, in the practice of our occupation\,? In this conference proceeding, we discuss certain limiting factors we encounter in our daily work, which we need to reflect on collectively in order to move forward, toward a more sustainable and effective research that preserves the well-being of researchers, regardless of their career stage.
ER -