2020 in Review
Latest Articles
Physicists Solve a Big Quantum Mystery. Now, Old Results Don’t Add Up.
New calculations seem to have put a 25-year-old particle physics puzzle to rest. But they’ve also created a clash with other experimental results.
A New Way That a Cow’s Inner World Shapes Earth’s Atmosphere
An organelle discovered inside a microbe inside a cow’s gut helps explain how livestock burps contribute to warming our planet.
How Fast Is the Universe Really Expanding?
One of the most contested issues in astrophysics is our understanding of the Universe’s expansion. Adam Riess discusses why there is disagreement and what might resolve it.
Fields and Abacus Medals 2026
Every four years, the math world’s preeminent awards are given to the finest minds of a generation. The young winners — all under 40 on the first day of the year — have reshaped mathematics and theoretical computer science. Here are their stories.
A Master of the Traveling Salesperson Problem Finds His Own Path
Shayan Oveis Gharan has won the Abacus Medal for using tools from across mathematics to boost the power of algorithms.
Living Fully in the Math World Means Threading the Needle
Focus, commitment, and insight resulted in a “once in a century” proof. Hong Wang is now just the third woman to win a Fields Medal.
Sometimes Being First Means Seeing the End Before Anyone Else
Determination and effort propelled Jacob Tsimerman to the top of the math world. But now that he’s won a Fields Medal, he worries that the field is in jeopardy.
The Quietest Mathematician Has Always Been Worth Listening To
John Pardon sees connections between different areas of math that others don’t. For that vision, he’s now been awarded a Fields Medal.
Amid Life’s Chaos, a Meticulous Mathematician Finds Stability
Before he won a Fields Medal for his pioneering work balancing randomness and order, Yu Deng first had to achieve equilibrium in his own life.