Research into how a father’s choices — such as diet, exercise, stress, nicotine use — may transfer traits to his children has ...

t started as a fantasy, then a promise — inspired by biology and animated by the ideas of physicists — and grew to become a powerful research tool. Now artificial intelligence has evolved into ...

The most powerful formula in physics starts with a slender S, the symbol for a sort of sum known as an integral. Further along comes a second S, representing a quantity known as action. Together, ...

Representation theory was initially dismissed. Today, it’s central to much of mathematics. When representation theory emerged in the late 19th century, many mathematicians questioned its worth. In ...

If we want to understand complex constructions, such as ourselves, assembly theory says we must account for the entire history of how such entities came to be. Life on other worlds — if it exists — ...

Years before she was even sure the James Webb Space Telescope would successfully launch, Christina Eilers started planning a conference for astronomers specializing in the early universe. She knew ...

To understand what quantum computers can do — and what they can’t — avoid falling for overly simple explanations. In reflective moments, though, I get it. The reality is that even if you removed all ...

For 50 years, mathematicians have believed that the total number of real numbers is unknowable. A new proof suggests otherwise. In October 2018, David Asperó was on holiday in Italy, gazing out a car ...

Detecting a graviton — the hypothetical particle thought to carry the force of gravity — is the ultimate physics experiment. Conventional wisdom, however, says it can’t be done. According to one ...

In August, a team of mathematicians posted a paper claiming to solve a major problem in algebraic geometry — using entirely alien techniques. It instantly captivated the field, stoking excitement in ...

Perhaps the most famously weird feature of quantum mechanics is nonlocality: Measure one particle in an entangled pair whose partner is miles away, and the measurement seems to rip through the ...

The thorny thought experiment has been turned into a real experiment — one that physicists use to probe the physics of information. The universe bets on disorder. Imagine, for example, dropping a ...