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The Math That’s Too Difficult for Physics
It’s one thing to smash protons together. It’s another to make scientific sense of the debris that’s left behind. This is the situation at CERN, the laboratory that houses the...
The Physics of Cold Water May Have Jump-Started Complex Life
...be due to the physics of cold water. A Frozen Paradox “Snowball Earth” was on everyone’s lips when Simpson was an undergraduate in the late 1990s. In 1992, the geochemist...
The Year in Physics
Physicists discovered strange supersolids, constructed new kinds of superconductors, and continued to make the case that the cosmos is far weirder than anyone suspected. Back in 1981, Cameron Gordon introduced...
The Universal Pattern Popping Up in Math, Physics and Biology
...series dives deep into math and physics theories, kicking off with ‘universality,’ a phenomenon that reveals underlying mathematical connections in the world,” Driscoll wrote in an email. “Depicting universality on...
A Collector of Math and Physics Surprises
...I was a postdoc, I was teaching myself physics and becoming a physicist, and some of it was tangible, especially since I’m often interested in macroscopic phenomena. So I decided...
2020’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Physics
This year, two teams of physicists made profound progress on ideas that could bring about the next revolution in physics. Another has identified the source of a longstanding cosmic mystery....
Omololu Akin-Ojo: Doing Cutting-Edge Physics in Africa
Omololu Akin-Ojo of the East African Institute for Fundamental Research discusses his plans to invigorate theoretical physics in Africa, including by focusing on problems related to energy and water that...
Nigel Goldenfeld: Seeing Emergent Physics Behind Evolution
Nigel Goldenfeld explains how condensed matter physics provides insights into the collective state of early life on Earth. Video by Seth Lowe for Quanta Magazine...
A Polymath on Physics, Computer Science, Neuroscience and Literature
Vijay Balasubramanian discusses the connections he sees between physics, computer science, neuroscience and literature and the humanities. Photo by Caroline Gutman for Quanta Magazine; video by Emily Buder and Rick...