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Q&A

‘The Rest of the World Disappears’: Claire Voisin on Mathematical Creativity

March 13, 2024

The recipient of the 2024 Crafoord Prize in Mathematics discusses math as art, math as language, and math as abstract thought.

Q&A

A Multitalented Scientist Seeks the Origins of Multicellularity

February 21, 2024

The pathbreaking geneticist Cassandra Extavour pursues the secrets of multicellular life while balancing careers in both science and singing.

Q&A

To See Black Holes in Stunning Detail, She Uses ‘Echoes’ Like a Bat

February 12, 2024

The astrophysicist Erin Kara measures time lags in black holes’ X-ray glows, which reveal the complexity of the objects’ closest surroundings.

Q&A

The Mathematician Who Finds the Poetry in Math and the Math in Poetry

January 12, 2024

The links between math, music and art have been explored for thousands of years. Sarah Hart is now turning a mathematical eye to literature.

Q&A

The ‘Accidental Activist’ Who Changed the Face of Mathematics

January 3, 2024

Throughout her 60-year career, Lenore Blum has developed new perspectives on logic and computation while championing women in mathematics and computer science. Now consciousness is on her mind.

Q&A

She Studies How Addiction Hijacks Learning in the Brain

December 7, 2023

Erin Calipari works to understand how drugs like opioids and cocaine alter learning circuits and neurochemistry in one of the country's epicenters of substance use disorder and addiction.

Q&A

The Scientist Who Decodes the Songs of Undersea Volcanoes

November 8, 2023

In the rumbles and groans of underwater volcanoes, Jackie Caplan-Auerbach finds her favorite harmonies — and clues to the Earth’s interior.

Q&A

The Computing Pioneer Helping AI See

October 24, 2023

Alexei Efros has spent his career learning how machines see differently from humans. Now he’s helping to bridge the gap.

Q&A

The Experimental Cosmologist Hunting for the First Sunrise

September 20, 2023

To catch even a whiff of the universe’s earliest epochs — an age of darkness, and one of new light — Cynthia Chiang builds her own equipment. Then she deploys it at the ends of the Earth.

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