In what is being billed as the largest global survey of physicists ever conducted, researchers have confirmed a suspicion long held by anyone who has ever cornered a physicist at a party: nobody can agree on how the Universe actually works. The survey found surprisingly little consensus on topics ranging from black holes and dark matter to the decades-long effort to reconcile Einstein's theory of gravity with quantum mechanics.

Even the standard model of cosmology, known as ΛCDM (Lambda Cold Dark Matter), failed to win support from a majority of respondents. This may reflect recent findings from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), which suggested that dark energy could change over time - a possibility that would conflict with the standard model's assumption that dark energy remains constant. So the model that is supposed to explain everything is currently being politely asked to explain itself.

And cosmology was far from the only area where physicists disagreed.

"The most striking result is how few of the 'standard answers' in fundamental physics command overwhelming support, with most falling short of a majority. The interesting point is not that physicists are confused. It is that the frontier is genuinely alive," says Niayesh Afshordi, associate faculty member at Perimeter Institute and professor at the University of Waterloo. Afshordi led the study with coauthor Phil Harper and the American Physical Society's Physics Magazine.

Across the questions included in the survey, only two received majority agreement. One concerned the Big Bang. Despite the way it is often portrayed in popular culture, 68% of the physicists surveyed said the Big Bang does not necessarily represent the beginning of time. Instead, the theory describes how the universe developed from an extremely hot and dense state. It does not, by itself, explain whether time had an absolute beginning. So if you were hoping for a definitive answer on the origin of everything, the answer is: 68% of experts say please stop asking.

The second point to cross the majority threshold was cosmic inflation. Just 51% agreed that the early universe experienced an extremely rapid period of expansion known as inflation. That's a majority, technically, in the same way that winning by one vote is technically winning.

On many other major questions, the responses were much more divided. Dark matter is one example. Only 17% favored the idea that dark matter is made of a yet undiscovered low-mass particle or particles. Another 12% supported modifications to the theory of gravity. The largest single group, at 21%, favored some combination of the many proposed explanations. That spread highlights how little consensus exists around one of the central mysteries of modern cosmology - a mystery that, at this point, has more proposed solutions than dark matter has detectable effects.

Physicists were similarly divided over quantum gravity, the effort to develop a theory that can describe gravity within the framework of quantum mechanics. String theory received the most support, but only 19% of respondents selected it as the most likely solution. Loop quantum gravity received 12%, while 18% favored the possibility that gravity cannot be quantized at all. The result shows that even after decades of theoretical work, no single approach has emerged as the dominant answer - which is a diplomatic way of saying that the field has produced a lot of very elegant mathematics and not much agreement.

So what does such widespread disagreement mean for the future of the field? Afshordi sees the lack of consensus as a sign of opportunity rather than failure.

"Scientific truth is not decided by a vote. But consensus, or its absence, tells us where the evidence feels settled and where researchers still see room for radically different ideas. In this sense, lack of consensus can be a clue. It marks places where better data, sharper theory, or new connections between subfields may be needed. In the eternal words of the Canadian singer and songwriter, Leonard Cohen: 'There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.'"

Rather than suggesting that physicists have lost their way, the findings point to areas where major discoveries may still be possible. Some of the most fundamental questions about the universe remain open, leaving room for new observations, stronger theories, and unexpected ideas to reshape our understanding. Which is either deeply inspiring or mildly terrifying, depending on how much you were counting on the standard model to hold it together.

The survey results are described in an article published in Physics Magazine. An online dashboard also allows readers to explore the responses in greater detail - presumably so you can find the one physicist who agrees with you and feel validated.

Materials provided by University of Waterloo and Perimeter Institute. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.