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Q&A
The Computer Scientist Who Shrinks Big Data
Jelani Nelson designs clever algorithms that only have to remember slivers of massive data sets. He also teaches kids in Ethiopia how to code.
Q&A
Searching Symbols for the Rules of Change
Bryna Kra searches for the patterns in sequences of numbers that explain how complicated dynamical systems evolve over time.
Hidden Structure
The Cosmologist Who Dreams in the Universe’s Dark Threads
Cora Dvorkin discovered new possibilities for what dark matter could be. Now she’s devising unorthodox ways to identify it.
Q&A
A Scientist Who Delights in the Mundane
From crumpled paper to termite mounds to three-sided coins, L. Mahadevan has turned the whole world into his laboratory.
Q&A
To Boldly Go Where No Internet Protocol Has Gone Before
Vinton Cerf helped create the internet 40 years ago, and he’s still working to connect people around the world — and off it.
Q&A
Complexity Scientist Beats Traffic Jams Through Adaptation
To tame urban traffic, the computer scientist Carlos Gershenson finds that letting transportation systems adapt and self-organize often works better than trying to predict and control them.
Q&A
Conducting the Mathematical Orchestra From the Middle
Emily Riehl is rewriting the foundations of higher category theory while also working to make mathematics more inclusive.
Q&A
The Physicist Who Slayed Gravity’s Ghosts
Claudia de Rham showed how theories of “massive gravity” could potentially get rid of the need for dark energy.
Q&A
He Found ‘Islands of Fertility’ Beneath Antarctica’s Ice
John Priscu’s search for life that thrives under ice took him to subglacial lakes at the South Pole. Now he has his eye on Mars and Europa.