News & media

• Times Literary Supplement features a review of Battle of the Big Bang by Philip Ball (PDF)

• " نبرد مهبانگ: روایتهای نو از خاستگاه کیهانی ما " نیایش افشردی، ۱۵ می ۲۰۲۵، جلسه اول سخنرانی

• "The Big Bang can't escape its religious beginnings" (excerpt from our book, Battle of the Big Bang, May 2025)

• "Beyond the Big Bang: reopening the doors on how it all began" (Emma Chapman reviews our book, Battle of the Big Bang for Physics World, May 2025)

• "Peppering A Cosmologist with All My Questions | #17 Dr. Niayesh Afshordi" (Jan 2025)

• New Tales of Our Cosmic Origins (My interview with Entangler abour our upcoming book, Fall 2024)

• Newfound 'glitch' in Einstein's relativity could rewrite the rules of the universe, study suggests (Live Science, May 2024)

• A Cosmic Glitch in Gravity (Nautilus, May 2024)

• A “cosmic glitch” in gravity (Waterloo News, May 2024)

• Astronomers claim universe has "cosmic glitch" (interview with Phil Halper, May 2024)

• Dark energy from supermassive black holes? Physicists spar over radical idea (Science News Feb. 2023)

• TQ3: Black holes are echoing but what? (Ten Questions Channel, Oct. 2022)

• Cosmologically Coupled (interview with Conversations at Perimeter, May 2022)

• These Experiments Could Prove Einstein Wrong, 6:27 Experiment 3: Black hole echoes (March 2022)

• Physicists identify a quantum membrane in merging black holes (Advanced Science News, Jan. 2022)

• Over Gravity's Rainbow (John Templeton Foundation News, by Zeeya Merali, Nov. 2021)

• Chiamaka Okoli was a rarity in physics. She challenged norms until her untimely death (Broadview, Sep. 2021)

• از کیهان تا پاندمی: شیرجه در ناشناخته ها ,بیست و ششمین مدرسه آموزش ویژه فیزیک
• دانشگاه تحصیلات تکمیلی علوم پایه زنجان, گاوازنگ - ۲۴ تیر ۱۴۰۰
• Modelling the mysteries of the universe, closer to home (Waterloo News, Jun. 2021)

• Echoes from black hole could force us to rethink laws of physics (Waterloo News, Feb. 2021)

• Q & A with the experts: The problem with herd immunity and COVID-19 (Radio interview with Mike Farwell Show, 570 News @43:27 minutes, Nov. 2020)
• Exploring herd immunity in fighting COVID-19 (interview with Kitchener 570 News radio, Nov. 2020)
• Fighting COVID-19 with Physics (interview with the local CTV station in Kitchener-Waterloo, Nov. 2020)

• My seminar at Fields Institute as part of COVID-19 Math Modelling Seminar Series:

• How dark is the cosmic web? (Live Science, Feb. 2020)

• Spacetime 'Echoes' From Quantum Black Holes Could Soon Change Physics Forever (VICE Motherboard, Feb. 2020)

• Black holes shouldn't echo, but this one might. Score 1 for Stephen Hawking? (Live Science, Jan. 2020)
• Black Hole Echoes: Video and Transcript (Backreaction, Jan. 2020)[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX_JQhjrtzY&w=560&h=315]
• Stephen Hawking thought black holes were 'hairy'. New study suggests he was right (Big Think, Jan. 2020)
• Weird World of Quantum Black Holes –“May Confirm Stephen Hawking’s Hypothesis” (The Daily Galaxy, Jan. 2020)
• Gravitational wave echoes may confirm Stephen Hawking’s hypothesis of quantum black holes (Waterloo News, Jan. 2020)

• جاهد عابدی و نیایش افشردی برندگان جایزه بوکالتر کیهان شناسی 2019
• 2019 Buchalter Cosmology Prize goes to Iranian researchers (IRNA, Jan. 2020)
• PERIMETER RESEARCH RECOGNIZED AGAIN BY BUCHALTER COSMOLOGY PRIZE (Perimeter News, Jan. 2020)
• The Buchalter Cosmology Prize Announcement (235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Honolulu, HI, 6th of Jan. 2020)

2019

• How did the Universe Begin? (Backreaction, Dec. 2019)[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHhUCav_Jrk?start=285&w=560&h=315]

• Einstein killed the aether. Now the idea is back to save relativity (New Scientist, Nov. 2019), PDF copy

• Black Hole Genesis (Before the Big Bang, Episode 10, Oct. 2019)[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXL0N3elFLE&w=560&h=315]

• Big Bang BOMBSHELL: Are we living inside a HUGE higher dimensional black hole? (Express.co.uk, June 2019)
• دنگ و فنگ بیگ بنگ ،دی جی کالا، خرداد †۱۳۹۸
• داستان مه بانگ ,خرداد ۱۳۹۸
• Ripple Effect (Discover Magazine, May 2019)

• New Scientist creates a Crisis-Anticrisis Pair (Backreaction, Jan. 2019)
• Crisis at the heart of Physics (New Scientist, Jan. 2019) , PDF copy

• Varying Speed of Light Cosmology (Before the Big Bang, Episode 8, Oct. 2018)

• Perimeter congratulates 2018 Nobel laureate Donna Strickland of University of Waterloo (Sep. 2018)
• Black holes test the limits of Einstein's relativity (Astronomy Magazine, Sep. 2018)
• Here be Dragons! (Physics 10, University of Waterloo, September 2018; keynote, PDF)
• Understanding Black Holes (Perimeter Institute Educational Video, Aug. 2018)
• Clarity on cosmic rays from deep beneath Antarctic ice (Inside the Perimeter, Jul. 2018)
• The Other 99 Percent: My keynote lecture for EinsteinPlus workshop at Perimeter Institute
• The space-time echoes that point to a new theory of reality (New Scientist, June 2018)

• کشف فیزیکی جدید، فراتر از نسبیت عام اینشتین توسط دانشمندان ایرانی, خرداد ۱۳۹۷
• Echoes of gravitational waves could point to quantum gravity (Physics World, May 2018)
• On Holographic Universe, Media Spin & the Iranian Brain Drain (my interview with Suzan Mazur, Apr. 2018)
• A black hole merger... merger... merger (Backreaction, Apr. 2018)
• Black Hole Echoes Would Reveal Break With Einstein’s Theory (Quanta Magazine, Mar. 2018)

• Why cutting-edge braneworld theories say our universe began in a white hole (Big Think, Jan. 2018)

2017

• How do you prove that Earth is older than 10,000 years? (Backreaction, Nov. 2017)
• Scientists think they've spotted some of the universe's 'missing' matter and it could be a lot (CBC news, Oct. 2017)
• The Other 99 Percent: My public lecture for Kitchener-Waterloo Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (Oct. 2017)
• The universe from a hologram? (Inside Perimeter, Apr. 2017)

• My public lecture on Big Bang and Holography, for the Belmont Astronomy Society (Apr. 2017)
• Echoes of a Black Hole (Aeon, Mar. 2017)
• When and Where Does Zordon Exist? (Inverse, Mar. 2017)
• Einstein's Test (I, Science 36, p 13, Mar. 2017)
• Universum võis olla selle algusaegadel hologramm (Eesti Rahvusringhääling, Feb. 2017)
• My radio interview with Ira Flatow on Science Friday, NPR, about Big Bang and Holography (Feb. 2017)

• My interview with Radio Canada International about the Big Bang (Feb. 2017)
• Could the universe actually be a flat hologram? (Christian Science Monitor, Feb. 2017)
• My radio interview with CBC Kitchener-Waterloo about Holographic Cosmology (Feb. 2017)
• Are we living in a holographic universe? New study suggests that it's possible (CBC News, Feb. 2017)
• Lost in space? A brief guide to the ‘holographic principle’ of the universe (Guardian, Jan. 2017)
• Surge la primera evidencia de que nuestro universo es un holograma (LaJornada, Jan. 2017)
• You Aren't Living in a Hologram, Even if You Wish You Were (Gizmodo, Jan. 2017)
• Mind blown: The entire universe could be a hologram (USA Today, Jan. 2017)
• Study reveals evidence that the universe is a hologram (Waterloo News, Jan. 2017)
• What is the speed of dark? (Gizmodo, Jan. 2017)
• Rätselhaftes Echo aus Schwarzem Loch (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, Jan. 2017)
• Did light break its own speed limit? (Faculty of Science, University of Waterloo, Jan. 2017)
• Setting space on fire (CQG+, Jan. 2017)

• Was Einstein wrong? Controversial theory claims the speed of light is not a constant (Wired, Dec. 2016)
• Einstein's Theory of Relativity is 100 Years Old, But May Not Last (Inverse, Dec. 2016)
• پژواکی از مغاک: شواهدی از ساختارهایی به اندازه پلانک در افق سیاهچاله ,آذر ۱۳۹۵
• Echoes from the Abyss (One Universe at a Time, Dec. 2016)
• A Light Change (One Universe at a Time, Dec. 2016)
• LIGO black hole echoes hint at general-relativity breakdown (Nature News, Dec. 2016)

• Has LIGO Already Discovered Evidence For Quantum Gravity? (Forbes.COM, Dec. 2016)
• Scientists Think the Speed of Light Has Slowed, and They're Trying to Prove It (Vice Motherboard, Dec. 2016)
• Theory challenging Einstein's view on speed of light could soon be tested (Guardian, Nov. 2016)
• دانشمند ایرانی در پی به چالش کشیدن نظریه انیشتین , پاییز ۱۳۹۵
• Could Einstein Have Been Wrong About The Speed Of Light? (Forbes.COM, Nov. 2016)
• Gravity may have chased light in the early universe (New Scientist, Nov. 2016)
• 5 Alternative Theories to the Big Bang (July 2016)

• گفتگو با مجله دانستنیها، زمستان ۱۳۹۴
• رصد امواج گرانشی، دریچه‌ای تازه به جهان ,زمستان ۱۳۹۴
• Much Ado around Nothing: The Cosmological non-Constant Problem (Backreaction, Feb. 2016)

• مشاهده کوچک‌ترین ذرات بنیادی از دریچه بزرگ‌ترین ساختار جهان با روش کیهان‌شناس ایرانی ,زمستان ۱۳۹۴
• آسمان مانند یک مرز ,زمستان ۱۳۹۴
• فیزیکدان ایرانی برنده جایزه کیهان شناسی بوکالتر شد, زمستان ۱۳۹۴
• The Sky as a Limit (Perimeter Institute News, Jan. 2016)
• Cosmology Prizes for Challenging Research (Jan. 2016)
• گفتگوی #منوتوخبر با دکتر نیایش افشردی، اخترفیزیک‌دان ایرانی ,زمستان ۱۳۹۴
• Waterloo astrophysicists win third in Buchalter Cosmology Prize competition (Jan. 2016)

2015

• "Changing what we know" our work featured in the UW state of the university report (Oct. 2015)
• Equation Series: Proof Restaurant in Uptown Waterloo (Apr. 2015)
• Detecting Black Hole Firewalls (FQXi podcast, Mar. 2015)
• Do black hole firewalls have observable consequences? (Backreaction, Feb. 2015)

2014

• Black Hole at the Birth of the Universe (Perimeter Institute News, Aug. 2014)
• The Black Hole at the Beginning of Time (Scientific American, Aug. 2014)

• (۱۳۹۳, در جستجوی مادۀ تاریک با همگرایی گرانشی ضعیف گذری (مقاله در فیزیک روز
• Jos voit lukea Suomen, tässä suosittu artikkeli työmme!

2013

• Bye Bye Big Bang! (FQXi podcast, Oct. 2013)
• Did a hyper-black hole spawn the Universe? (Nature News, Sep. 2013)