Archive

How does experience alter our perceptions? This adapted book excerpt from We Know It When We See It describes how the brain’s visual system rewires itself to make the best use of its neural resources.

We give our genes and our environment all the credit for making us who we are. But random noise during development might be just as important.

A study has cemented the link between an intense global warming episode 56 million years ago and volcanism in the North Atlantic, with implications for modern climate change.

“Rainbow colorings” recently led to a new proof. It’s not the first time they’ve come in handy.

The neurogenetics pioneer Cori Bargmann speaks with host Steven Strogatz about why a transparent worm became her favorite animal and how a genetic discovery she made inspired a revolutionary cancer treatment.

In a new paper, physicists argue that hypothetical particles called axions could explain why the universe isn’t empty.

In our mind’s eye, the universe seems to go on forever. But using geometry we can explore a variety of three-dimensional shapes that offer alternatives to “ordinary” infinite space.

Ronald Rivest helped come up with the RSA algorithm, which safeguards online commerce. Now he’s hoping to make democratic elections more trustworthy.

Glass is anything that’s rigid like a crystal, yet made of disordered molecules like a liquid. To understand why it exists, researchers are attempting to create the perfect, still-hypothetical “ideal glass.”