Year in Review
Biggest Breakthroughs in Biology 2025
2025’s most surprising breakthroughs in biology included a finding that a father’s environmental exposures can impact the development of their offspring, research confirming that intelligence evolved independently in birds and mammals, and a new mathematical model reveals that evolution happens in explosive bursts.
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Biggest Breakthroughs in Biology 2025
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The Biggest Breakthroughs in Mathematics: 2025
The Biggest Breakthroughs in Physics: 2025
2024 Biggest Breakthroughs in Computer Science
2024 Biggest Breakthroughs in Biology
2024 Biggest Breakthroughs in Physics
2024 Biggest Breakthroughs in Math
2023’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Math
2023’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Physics
2023’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Computer Science
2023’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Biology and Neuroscience
2022’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Math
2021’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Math and Computer Science
2021’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Physics
2021’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Biology
2020’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Biology
2020’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Math and Computer Science
2020’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Physics
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Sharon Glotzer: ‘Digital Alchemist’ Seeks Rules of Emergence
Sharon Glotzer explains how emergence, entropy and order can all fit together.
Sylvia Serfaty: In Mathematics, ‘You Cannot Be Lied To’
Sylvia Serfaty explains why you don’t have to be a genius to become a mathematician.
Francis Su: Math and the Good Life
Francis Su explains how mathematics can help a person to live well.
Francis Su: Math Is for Everybody
Francis Su discusses how the community of mathematicians tends to exclude certain people.
Marcus Feldman: In Search of Actions That Alter Evolution
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: In the Deep, a Drive to Find Dark Matter
Elena Aprile explains how she hunts for dark matter in the world’s largest underground laboratory.
Janet Conrad: On a Hunt for a Ghost of a Particle
Janet Conrad explains how sterile neutrinos might help physicists move past the Standard Model.
Erik Verlinde: The Case Against Dark Matter
Erik Verlinde describes how emergent gravity and dark energy can explain away dark matter.
Cynthia Dwork: How to Force Our Machines to Play Fair
Cynthia Dwork explains how to conduct a survey that asks people if they do embarrassing — or even illicit — things.