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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Leslie Valiant: Searching for the Algorithms Underlying Life
Leslie Valiant explains the term “ecorithm.”
Richard Dawid: Why Trust a Theory?
Richard Dawid discusses the fine line between science and speculation.
Christoph Adami: The Information Theory of Life
Christoph Adami explains how information theory can explain the persistence of life.
Joan Strassmann: The Woman Who Stared at Wasps
Joan Strassmann explains the benefits of studying social amoebas.
Gabriela González: Searching the Sky for the Wobbles of Gravity
Gabriela González explains how to measure black-hole collisions using gravitational waves.
What Is a Species?
David Kaplan explains why a simple definition of “species” is hard to come by.
Nima Arkani-Hamed’s Visions of Future Physics
Nima Arkani-Hamed makes his “big-picture” case for building a 100-TeV particle collider.
Nancy Moran: An Explorer of Life’s Deepest Partnerships
Nancy Moran explains how colony collapse disorder led her to study the bacteria that live in the guts of bees.
James Bullock: The Case for Complex Dark Matter
James Bullock explains why dark matter might be more complicated than astronomers have assumed.