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Quark Quartet Fuels Quantum Feud
Newly discovered particles are forcing physicists to extend their simple picture of subatomic interactions or replace it with a more nuanced understanding.
I Contain Multitudes
Our bodies are a genetic patchwork, possessing variation from cell to cell. Is that a good thing?
At Multiverse Impasse, a New Theory of Scale
Physicists have begun to explore the idea that mass and length may not be fundamental properties of nature. The hypothesis could help to avoid the conclusion that our world is just a weird bubble in an endlessly foaming multiverse.
A Grand Vision for the Impossible
Subhash Khot’s bold conjecture is helping mathematicians explore the precise limits of computation.
In Noisy Equations, One Who Heard Music
Martin Hairer was named a 2014 Fields medalist for an epic masterpiece in stochastic analysis that colleagues say “created a whole world.”
A Tenacious Explorer of Abstract Surfaces
Maryam Mirzakhani, who became the first woman Fields medalist for drawing deep connections between topology, geometry and dynamical systems, has died of cancer at the age of 40. This is our 2014 profile of her life and work.
A Brazilian Wunderkind Who Calms Chaos
Artur Avila’s solutions to ubiquitous problems in chaos theory have “changed the face of the field,” earning him Brazil’s first Fields Medal.
The Musical, Magical Number Theorist
The search for artistic truth and beauty has led Manjul Bhargava to some of the most profound recent discoveries in number theory, which have helped earn him the Fields Medal.
As Animals Mingle, a Baffling Genetic Barrier
Despite swapping DNA through interbreeding, butterflies and other animals can maintain distinct species.