Q&A

And not destroy humanity in the process.

To tell truth from fiction, start with quantitative thinking, argues the mathematician Rebecca Goldin.

The rise of new extremist groups has served as both an impetus and test-case for Neil Johnson’s models of terrorism and insurgency.

Even in the age of sun-observing satellites, astronomers like Jay Pasachoff still seek out total solar eclipses for the tales they can tell about our sun.

The astrophysicist Andrea Ghez spent two decades proving that a supermassive black hole anchors the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Her new plan? Test what happens when things get too close.

Kaisa Matomäki has proved that properties of prime numbers over long intervals hold over short intervals as well. The techniques she uses have transformed the study of these elusive numbers.

The evolutionary biologist Jessica Flack seeks the computational rules that groups of organisms use to solve problems.

The computational immunologist Purvesh Khatri embraces messy data as a way to capture the messiness of disease. As a result, he’s making elusive genomic discoveries.

Time isn’t just another dimension, argues Tim Maudlin. To make his case, he’s had to reinvent geometry.