Matt von Hippel

Every elementary particle falls into one of two categories. Collectivist bosons account for the forces that move us while individualist fermions keep our atoms from collapsing.

Reversible programs run backward as easily as they run forward, saving energy in theory. After decades of research, they may soon power AI.

Quantum calculations amount to sophisticated estimates. But in 1931, Hans Bethe intuited precisely how a chain of particles would behave — an insight that had far-reaching consequences.

Across the social and biological sciences, statisticians use a technique that leverages randomness to deal with the unknown.

One of the quantum fields that fills the universe is special because its default value seems poised to eventually change, changing everything.

Particle physicists in search of the next theory of reality are consulting a mathematical structure that they know will never fail: a table of possibilities known as the S-matrix.

Maintenance of the software that’s used for the hardest physics calculations rests almost entirely with a retiree. The situation reveals the problematic incentive structure of academia.