Heavenly Tensions: Is modern cosmology in crisis?

In this talk, Geraint will explore the growing tensions in modern cosmology and observational discrepancies that may signal cracks in the standard model. He will start with the Hubble tension, a persistent mismatch between early- and late-universe measurements of the expansion rate, which challenges our understanding of cosmic history. From there, we will examine the cosmological principle, the assumption of large-scale uniformity, and how emerging evidence of dipole anisotropies and directional patterns in the distribution of galaxies may undermine this foundational idea. He will conclude with a “state of the nation” overview, assessing whether cosmology is facing a genuine crisis or simply entering a new phase of discovery.