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AI Starts to Sift Through String Theory’s Near-Endless Possibilities

April 23, 2024

Using machine learning, string theorists are finally showing how microscopic configurations of extra dimensions translate into sets of elementary particles — though not yet those of our universe.

Geometers Engineer New Tools to Wrangle Spacecraft Orbits

April 15, 2024

Mathematicians think abstract tools from a field called symplectic geometry might help with planning missions to far-off moons and planets.

Can Information Escape a Black Hole?

April 11, 2024

Black holes are inescapable traps for most of what falls into them — but there can be exceptions. The theoretical physicist Leonard Susskind speaks with co-host Janna Levin about the black hole information paradox and how it has propelled modern physics.

How the Ancient Art of Eclipse Prediction Became an Exact Science

April 5, 2024

The timing of the total eclipse on April 8, 2024, will be known to within a second, thousands of years after fearful humans first started trying to anticipate these cosmic events.

Dark Energy May Be Weakening, Major Astrophysics Study Finds

April 4, 2024

A generation of physicists has referred to the dark energy that permeates the universe as “the cosmological constant.” Now the largest map of the cosmos to date hints that this mysterious energy has been changing over billions of years.

The Best Qubits for Quantum Computing Might Just Be Atoms

March 25, 2024

In the search for the most scalable hardware to use for quantum computers, qubits made of individual atoms are having a breakout moment.

Doubts Grow About the Biosignature Approach to Alien-Hunting

March 19, 2024

Recent controversies bode ill for the effort to detect life on other planets by analyzing the gases in their atmospheres.

Swirling Forces, Crushing Pressures Measured in the Proton

March 14, 2024

Long-anticipated experiments that use light to mimic gravity are revealing the distribution of energies, forces and pressures inside a subatomic particle for the first time.

What Is Quantum Teleportation?

March 14, 2024

Teleporting people through space is still science fiction. But quantum teleportation is dramatically different and entirely real. In this episode, Janna Levin interviews the theoretical physicist John Preskill about teleporting bits and the promise of quantum technology.

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