Beyond the Visible: Webb Telescope Rewrites Our Cosmic Understanding (Day 3 at SXSW)
I spent the weeks leading up to SXSW reading books on string theory, cosmology, and physics to prepare for today’s panels! And I was not disappointed.
After exploring Living Intelligence and the emerging robot revolution on Day 2, SXSW 2025’s third day took us beyond Earth to the cosmos and revelations transforming our understanding of the universe and life itself.
The NASA panel on the James Webb Space Telescope showcased beautiful imagery and explained what new discoveries are coming. As astrophysicist Amber Straughn noted, there’s a “beautiful, poetic motion” to this discovery process—we are made from the stellar materials Webb is helping us understand.
This cosmic perspective was balanced by John Mulchaey’s sobering assessment of American astronomy’s uncertain future. Our billion-dollar ground telescope projects stalled while international competitors forged ahead, risking America’s leadership in understanding our place in the universe.
What I Think I Learned Today
- American Science Dominance May Be Over: There has been a dark undercurrent of sadness in the hard science panels I’ve attended. The sense is that even if the NIH and NSF restart their funding machine, Europe—and China—will soon be the world leaders in cutting-edge science.
- Dark Matter Remains Elusive: Despite overwhelming evidence that dark matter exists, experiments eliminate theoretical models without finding answers. As Mulchaey suggested, we may have “fundamentally missed something or misunderstood something about the universe”—both exciting and concerning for fundamental physics.
- But Dark Matter May Not Remain Elusive: The next generation of telescopes, including the Vera Rubin Observatory, will begin testing for Dark Matter, which should begin to give us answers to the mysterious forces of the universe.
- De-Extinction Has Arrived: Colossal Biosciences’ work with woolly mammoth DNA has moved from science fiction to reality, with their successful “woolly mouse” demonstrating the viability of genetic editing techniques that could revolutionize conservation efforts.
- The Biology Revolution Is Accelerating: Ben Lamb’s prediction that we’ll see longevity breakthroughs, cancer vaccines, and engineered species within 15-20 years suggests biology, combined with AI, is poised to transform humanity’s relationship with nature more fundamentally than any previous technology.
Panel Summaries
NASA’s Love Letter: Stunning Webb Images & More
The “NASA’s Love Letter: Stunning Webb Images & More” panel, featuring Laura Betz, Dr. Knicole Colón, Dr. Amber Straughn, and Dr. Stefanie Milan, celebrated the extraordinary achievements of the James Webb Space Telescope, a collaboration of 20,000 people from NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency.
The telescope, launched Christmas morning 2021, represents the most ambitious space science mission ever undertaken. Its 6.5-meter mirror had to be folded for launch and then unfolded in space—a process with 300 potential single-point failures that “might have been the end of NASA science” had any gone wrong.=
Instead, Webb has exceeded all expectations, revealing that the early universe contained many more bright galaxies than theories predicted, with unexpectedly large black holes at their centers. Amber Straughn noted, “We haven’t broken cosmology, but we have to reconcile our theories about galaxies with what we’re actually seeing.”
The telescope’s spectrometer capabilities have revolutionized exoplanet research, detecting molecular signatures in atmospheres trillions of miles from Earth with surprising ease. Perhaps most unexpectedly, Webb detected water in Main Belt Asteroids—objects close enough to the sun that water was thought impossible—revealing “something in this solar system that can bring water to celestial bodies,” a finding Stefanie Milan called “spectacular in terms of science.”
All of Webb’s imagery and data are freely available to the public through NASA’s website. The mission is expected to continue producing discoveries for approximately 20 years.
Talking Telescopes: The Future of American Observation
Dr. John Mulchaey‘s “Talking Telescopes: The Future of American Observation” session traced astronomy’s evolution from Galileo’s revolutionary observations that got him “in a lot of trouble” to today’s space observatories, highlighting how each technological advance has fundamentally transformed our understanding of the cosmos.
While celebrating Webb’s unprecedented infrared capabilities, which allow astronomers to see through cosmic dust and detect extremely distant, red-shifted galaxies, Mulchaey expressed concern about the future of American astronomy. Three major ground-based telescope projects—the European Extremely Large Telescope, Giant Magellan Telescope, and Thiry Meter Telescope—require government support beyond the $1 billion secured private funding.
“If we don’t build ours, we’ll fall behind in astronomy,” Mulchaey warned, noting that Europe and China are actively developing their next-generation observatories while American projects await government decisions.
The session also addressed cosmic mysteries, including Dark Matter and Dark Energy, which constitute 95% of the universe yet remain poorly understood. Mulchaey acknowledged that as experiments continue to eliminate theoretical models without finding answers, scientists may eventually need to reconsider fundamental assumptions about the universe—”a good place to be in science,” though concerning.
Looking ahead, upcoming projects like the Vera Rubin Observatory will map the sky every three days for ten years, potentially discovering “10-100x more objects than we know about” in our solar system alone, while the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will expand Hubble-quality observations from less than 1% of the sky to approximately 50% within five years.
Keynote: Colossal: Turning Science Fiction to Science Fact
Ben Lamb’s keynote on Colossal Biosciences tackled their ambitious de-extinction work while placing it in a biodiversity crisis where “we’re looking to lose about 50% of all biodiversity by 2050″—a moral and ethical challenge requiring radical solutions.
Colossal focuses on recently extinct species and preventing further losses through advanced genetic technologies.
Their “woolly mouse” project demonstrated successful genetic editing by incorporating mammoth traits into mice, validating techniques that could eventually lead to functional mammoth traits in elephants. This work has yielded unexpected insights into human applications, including understanding how elephants and blue whales resist cancer through the P-53 protein.
Lamb predicted a revolution in longevity medicine within 20 years, where “for every year we’re alive, we’ll add 1 to 1.3 years to our life,” alongside cancer vaccines, engineered solutions to environmental problems, and even new species created for specific purposes. However, he acknowledged the “very dangerous” moment we face as these technologies advance rapidly while regulatory frameworks struggle to keep pace.
The keynote concluded with a call for a “Manhattan Project” to create an animal equivalent to the global seed bank—a “present-day Ark” preserving genetic material from endangered and keystone species to ensure biodiversity remains protected regardless of extinction events.
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