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Thinking Places
Janet Conrad, Seeker of Neutrinos and Other Curiosities
The physicist and curios collector hopes to reveal the hidden structure lurking in the subatomic world.
Thinking Places
Joe Polchinski’s Restless Pursuit of Quantum Gravity
The pot-stirring string theorist and quantum gravity theorist never sits still for long.
Thinking Places
Eva Silverstein’s Spirals and Strings
Daily bike rides, serendipitous interactions and long periods of solo thinking inspire this string cosmologist.
Thinking Places
Subhash Khot, Playing Unique Games in Washington Square Park
The theoretical computer scientist behind the influential Unique Games Conjecture delights in the wonders of New York’s Washington Square Park, where he ponders the impossible.
Thinking Places
Juan Maldacena, Pondering Quantum Gravity by the Pond
One of the world’s preeminent theoretical physicists seeks a quiet place to think.
Thinking Places
Roberto Peccei and Helen Quinn, Driving Around Stanford in a Clunky Jeep
The two physicists who introduced Peccei-Quinn symmetry came up with their idea on and around Stanford University’s campus 40 years ago.
Thinking Places
Rainer Weiss, Remembering the Little Room in the Plywood Palace
The physicist who designed the LIGO experiment that detected gravitational waves still holes up in a small basement lab surrounded by electronics and optical instruments.
Thinking Places
Yitang Zhang’s Santa Barbara Beach Walk
An obscure number theorist who became an overnight sensation with a major proof about the gaps between prime numbers now finds quiet inspiration walking along the Pacific Coast.
Multimedia
Journey to the Birth of the Solar System
Join David Kaplan on a virtual-reality tour showing how the sun, the Earth and the other planets came to be.