Natalie Wolchover

An MIT physicist has proposed the provocative idea that life exists because the law of increasing entropy drives matter to acquire lifelike physical properties.

Improvements in how densely spheres and other shapes can be packed together could lead to advances in materials science, deep space communication and theoretical physics.

By investigating the central role played by knots in fluids and fields, physicists hope to unravel long-standing mysteries of turbulence.

To determine the nature of infinity, mathematicians face a choice between two new logical axioms. What they decide could help shape the future of mathematical truth.

Physicists have devised experiments that can probe the interface between quantum mechanics and general relativity.

Physicists have completed a new round of searches for the answer to why matter dominates over antimatter. But the radioactive decay that would solve the puzzle is evading them.

As physics prepares for ambitious projects like the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, the field is seeking new methods of data-driven discovery.

Physicists have discovered a jewel-shaped geometric object that challenges the notion that space and time are fundamental constituents of nature.

Researchers are making progress toward a “perfect lens” that will be able to resolve an organelle assembling a protein or a virus attacking a cell.