Archive

At 86, Britain’s preeminent mathematical matchmaker is still tackling the big questions and dreaming of a union between the quantum and the gravitational forces.

A satellite spotted a burst of light just as gravitational waves rolled in from the collision of two black holes. Was the flash a cosmic coincidence, or do astrophysicists need to rethink what black holes can do?

The biologist Sean B. Carroll rediscovers the scientific thrill of an unexpected revelation.

Assigning elements from a large collection to one of two categories can yield almost “magical” predictions about highly complicated problems without actually solving them.

In a virtuoso experiment, physicists have revealed details of a “quantum critical point” that underlies high-temperature superconductivity.

The path from a revolutionary set of equations to the detection of gravitational waves was strewn with obstacles and controversy, explains the physicist Daniel Kennefick — and the struggle continues.

Perhaps chemistry played a more instrumental role in the origin of life than scientists thought.

Ripples in space-time have been detected a century after Einstein predicted them, launching a new era in astronomy.

In a geometrically designed social club, how do dancing, triangles and hexagons mix?