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The Astronomer Who’d Rather Build Space Cameras
Jim Gunn shaped the theory of the evolution of the cosmos before building cameras and spectrographs for major observatories like the Hubble Space Telescope.
The Bulldogs That Bulldogs Fight
Solve a linguistic whodunit about a college mascot by thinking like a self-referencing computer subroutine.
Heat-Loving Microbes, Once Dormant, Thrive Over Decades-Old Fire
In harsh ecosystems around the world, microbiologists are finding evidence that “microbial seed banks” protect biodiversity from changing conditions.
Viruses Have a Secret, Altruistic Social Life
Researchers are beginning to understand the ways in which viruses strategically manipulate and cooperate with one another.
Mathematicians Discover the Perfect Way to Multiply
By chopping up large numbers into smaller ones, researchers have rewritten a fundamental mathematical speed limit.
What the Sight of a Black Hole Means to a Black Hole Physicist
The astrophysicist Janna Levin reflects on the newly unveiled, first-ever photograph of a black hole.
Researchers Rethink the Ancestry of Complex Cells
New studies revise ideas about the symbiosis that gave mitochondria to cells and about whether the last common ancestor of all eukaryotes was one cell or many.
The Scientist Who Cooks Up the Skies of Faraway Worlds
Astronomers will soon take their first glance at the atmosphere of a distant exoplanet. Sarah Hörst is writing the guidebook for these exoplanetary explorers, one that will reveal what a distinctive atmosphere says about the world underneath.
Scientists Discover Exotic New Patterns of Synchronization
In a world seemingly filled with chaos, physicists have discovered new forms of synchronization and are learning how to predict and control them.