Essays

The last decade has seen vast improvements in humanoid robots, but graduating to widespread use might require going back to the fundamentals.

Columnist Natalie Wolchover explores whether applied category theory can be “green” math.

Columnist Philip Ball thinks the phenomenon of decoherence might finally bridge the quantum-classical divide.

Columnist Natalie Wolchover checks in with particle physicists more than a decade after the field entered a profound crisis.

A planetary perspective on the relationship between life and energy, and the emergence of a life form whose influence extends across the entire biosphere — presenting us with an awesome opportunity.

In this article adapted from his new book, "Waves in an Impossible Sea," physicist Matt Strassler explains that the origin of mass in the universe has a lot to do with music.

Computer scientist Lance Fortnow writes that by embracing the computations that surround us, we can begin to understand and tame our seemingly random world.

The outer layers of the sun’s atmosphere are a blistering million degrees hotter than its surface. The hidden culprit? Magnetic activity.

Modern scientists aren’t content with predicting how life evolves. They want to shape it.