What's up in

Q&A

Latest Articles

Q&A

The Maestro of Memory Manipulation

June 23, 2016

The neuroscientist Sheena Josselyn can evoke and erase memories in mice using new tools that precisely control the brain.

Q&A

An Explorer of Quantum Borderlands

June 9, 2016

Suchitra Sebastian’s searches for quantum anomalies have led to the potential discovery of a new building block of matter.

Q&A

A Life Inspired by an Unexpected Genius

May 19, 2016

Greatness was always expected of Ken Ono. But as he struggled with his parents’ expectations, he found solace and inspiration in the life of two-time college dropout — and mathematical genius — Srinivasa Ramanujan, the subject of the film The Man Who Knew Infinity.

Q&A

Janna Levin’s Theory of Doing Everything

May 5, 2016

The astrophysicist, conceptual writer and host of standing-room-only scientific soirees at a repurposed factory in Brooklyn sees science as a powerful force in culture.

Q&A

The Evolutionary Argument Against Reality

April 21, 2016

The cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman believes that evolution and quantum mechanics conspire to make objective reality an illusion.

Q&A

In Warm, Greasy Puddles, the Spark of Life?

March 17, 2016

The biologist David Deamer proposes that life evolved from a collection of interacting molecules, probably in a pool in the shadow of a volcano.

Q&A

Michael Atiyah’s Imaginative State of Mind

March 3, 2016

At 86, Britain’s preeminent mathematical matchmaker is still tackling the big questions and dreaming of a union between the quantum and the gravitational forces.

Q&A

Searching for the Algorithms Underlying Life

January 28, 2016

The biological world is computational at its core, argues computer scientist Leslie Valiant.

Q&A

Taming Superconductors With String Theory

January 21, 2016

The physicist Subir Sachdev borrows tools from string theory to understand the puzzling behavior of high-temperature superconductors.

Get highlights of the most important news delivered to your email inbox