David Kaplan explains how the law of increasing entropy could drive random bits of matter into the stable, orderly structures of life.
Sharon Glotzer explains how emergence, entropy and order can all fit together.
Sylvia Serfaty explains why you don’t have to be a genius to become a mathematician.
Francis Su explains how mathematics can help a person to live well.
Francis Su discusses how the community of mathematicians tends to exclude certain people.
Marcus Feldman explains how he models the effects of a cultural preference — in this case, a preference for sons over daughters in China.
Elena Aprile explains how she hunts for dark matter in the world’s largest underground laboratory.
Janet Conrad explains how sterile neutrinos might help physicists move past the Standard Model.
Erik Verlinde describes how emergent gravity and dark energy can explain away dark matter.
Cynthia Dwork explains how to conduct a survey that asks people if they do embarrassing — or even illicit — things.