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string theory

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Emergent reductionism flower
Quantized Columns

To Solve the Biggest Mystery in Physics, Join Two Kinds of Law

By Robbert Dijkgraaf
September 7, 2017
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Reductionism breaks the world into elementary building blocks. Emergence finds the simple laws that arise out of complexity. These two complementary ways of viewing the universe come together in modern theories of quantum gravity.

fidget spinners
Quantized Academy

Symmetry, Algebra and the Monster

By Patrick Honner
August 17, 2017
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To begin to understand what mathematicians and physicists see in the abstract structures of symmetries, let’s start with a familiar shape.

Joe Polchinsky at the Kavli Institute
Thinking Places

Joe Polchinski’s Restless Pursuit of Quantum Gravity

By Natalie Wolchover +2 authors
Olena Shmahalo
Lucy Reading-Ikkanda
August 7, 2017
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The pot-stirring string theorist and quantum gravity theorist never sits still for long.

Eva Silverstein at Stanford University
Thinking Places

Eva Silverstein’s Spirals and Strings

By Natalie Wolchover +2 authors
Olena Shmahalo
Lucy Reading-Ikkanda
July 17, 2017
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Daily bike rides, serendipitous interactions and long periods of solo thinking inspire this string cosmologist.

Juan Maldacena
Thinking Places

Juan Maldacena, Pondering Quantum Gravity by the Pond

By Natalie Wolchover +2 authors
Olena Shmahalo
Lucy Reading-Ikkanda
June 23, 2017
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One of the world’s preeminent theoretical physicists seeks a quiet place to think.

Naked singularities
quantum gravity

Where Gravity Is Weak and Naked Singularities Are Verboten

By Natalie Wolchover
June 20, 2017
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Recent calculations tie together two conjectures about gravity, potentially revealing new truths about its elusive quantum nature.

Illustration: diver searching for new math
Quantized Columns

Quantum Questions Inspire New Math

By Robbert Dijkgraaf
March 30, 2017
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In order to fully understand the quantum world, we may have to develop a new realm of mathematics.

string theory

The Strange Second Life of String Theory

By K.C. Cole
September 15, 2016
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String theory has so far failed to live up to its promise as a way to unite gravity and quantum mechanics. At the same time, it has blossomed into one of the most useful sets of tools in science.

Q&A

Moonshine Master Toys With String Theory

By Natalie Wolchover
August 4, 2016
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The physicist-mathematician Miranda Cheng is working to harness a mysterious connection between string theory, algebra and number theory.


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