Archive

For decades, physicists have struggled to create a quantum theory of gravity. Now an approach that dates to the 1970s is attracting newfound attention.

What does measuring distances in sailing and astrophysics have to with motion sickness?

A complete classification could lead to a wealth of new materials and technologies. But some exotic phases continue to resist understanding.

Evolution settled on a genetic code that uses four letters to name 20 amino acids. Synthetic biologists adding new bases to DNA will be free to improve on nature — if they can.

This holiday season, catch up on science and math news while solving our year-end crossword.

Two mathematicians prove that under certain extreme conditions, the Navier-Stokes equations output nonsense.

Corina Tarnita deciphers bizarre patterns in the soil created by competing life-forms.

For decades, an origin-of-life story starring RNA has prevailed. New research may be shaking that theory’s hold on our understanding of life’s beginnings.

The mother of all string theories passes a litmus test that, so far, no other candidate theory of quantum gravity has been able to match.