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Q&A
The Scientist Leading the World’s Aurora Hunters
Liz MacDonald realized that if she wanted to create the world’s best aurora map, she needed a secret ingredient: Twitter.
Q&A
This Cosmologist Knows How It’s All Going to End
The astrophysicist and social media phenom Katie Mack is ready to tell you about the fate of the universe.
Q&A
The Computer Scientist Who Can’t Stop Telling Stories
For pioneering computer scientist Donald Knuth, good coding is synonymous with beautiful expression.
Q&A
A Rapid End Strikes the Dinosaur Extinction Debate
The paleontologist Pincelli Hull has nailed down the timing and speed of the extinction that killed off the dinosaurs — details that carry ominous warnings for today.
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Cryptography Pioneer Seeks Secure Elections the Low-Tech Way
Ronald Rivest helped come up with the RSA algorithm, which safeguards online commerce. Now he’s hoping to make democratic elections more trustworthy.
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The Man Making Rwanda Into a Hub for Physics
As the founding director of a new institute for fundamental research in Rwanda, the physicist Omololu Akin-Ojo hopes to stem the brain drain of Africa’s brightest minds.
Q&A
The Contrarian Who Cures Cancers
James P. Allison believed that unleashing the immune system was a way to beat cancer when almost no one else did. A Nobel Prize and a growing list of cancer survivors vindicate him.
Q&A
Secrets of Math From the Bee Whisperer
As Scarlett Howard taught honeybees to do arithmetic, they showed her how fundamental numbers might be to all brains.
Q&A
The Architect of Modern Algorithms
Barbara Liskov pioneered the modern approach to writing code. She warns that the challenges facing computer science today can’t be overcome with good design alone.