Qualia

The bacterial flagellar motor is finally understood after 50 years. In its workings, columnist Natalie Wolchover finds the essence of life.

Our tales of AI developing the will to survive, commandeer resources, and manipulate people say more about us than they do about language models.

Columnist Natalie Wolchover examines the latest developments in the “forever war” over whether string theory can describe the world.

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.