Using supercomputers and new mathematical techniques, physicists are working to reveal how the Hoyle state atomic nucleus gives rise to the light elements that enable life, and how it drives the evolution of stars.
As the elegant theory of supersymmetry continues to fail experimental tests, physicists debate whether to change course and what the future holds for particle physics.
Thirty years after William Thurston articulated a grand mathematical vision, a proof by Ian Agol marks the end of an era in the study of three-dimensional shapes.