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It is an underappreciated irony that talking about complex systems is difficult. “There is no clear definition of complex systems,” says Kunihiko Kaneko, a physicist at the University of Tokyo. “But roughly speaking, there are many interacting elements, and they often show chaotic or dynamic behavior.” This year, for the first time, the Nobel Prize […]

Editor’s Note (10/4/21): David Julius, interviewed in this story from September 2019, is the co-recipient of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries related to how the human body senses temperature and touch.  David Julius knows pain. The professor of physiology at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine has […]

If the Perseverance rover finds evidence for microbes on Mars, our self-esteem will not be affected since it is obvious that we are more intelligent than they are. But if the rover bumps into the wreckage of a spacecraft far more advanced than we ever produced, our ego will be challenged. Illusory superiority and unjustified […]

In 1952, at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, theoretical physicists Enrico Fermi, John Pasta and Stanislaw Ulam brainstormed ways to use the MANIAC, one of the world’s first supercomputers, to solve scientific problems. At the time, problems were solved by performing either laboratory experiments or mathematical calculations by hand. Fermi, Pasta and Ulam wanted to use […]

In my freshman seminar at Harvard last semester, I mentioned that the nearest star to the sun, Proxima Centauri, emits mostly infrared radiation and has a planet, Proxima b, in the habitable zone around it. As a challenge to the students, I asked: “Suppose there are creatures crawling on the surface of Proxima b? What […]

China will stop building coal-fired power projects in other countries, President Xi Jinping said yesterday in an announcement that’s expected to accelerate the global shift away from fossil fuels. The pledge, made at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, comes as other industrialized nations are reversing economic policies that fueled the construction of coal […]

When purchasing a new phone or tablet, it is common practice to select the best technology that fits your needs within the available budget. This is also the strategy adopted by our research team at the Galileo Project, a new initiative to image unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) like those reported by the Office of the […]

To a chef, the sounds of lip smacking, slurping and swallowing are the highest form of flattery. But to someone with a certain type of misophonia, these same sounds can be torturous. Brain scans are now helping scientists start to understand why. People with misophonia experience strong discomfort, annoyance or disgust when they hear particular […]

Ever since I can remember, I was constantly asking questions. My parents called me “Miss Inquisity” because of it. I was that quirky kid on the playground who played with butterflies and spied for ladybugs. After I came home from school, I binged How It’s Made on the Science Channel. Oh, that’s what makes my […]

NASA is considering whether to rename its flagship astronomical observatory, given reports alleging that James Webb, after whom it is named, was involved in persecuting gay and lesbian people during his career in government. Keeping his name on the US$8.8-billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)—set to launch later this year—would glorify bigotry and anti-LGBT+ sentiment, […]