Q&A

Neural networks are famously incomprehensible, so Been Kim is developing a “translator for humans.”

Planetary geologist Meenakshi Wadhwa uses Martian meteorites to trace the history of our solar system.

For 50 years, the astrophysicist Martin Rees has contributed to our understanding of cosmology. Now he is speaking up about the promise and potential dangers of the science and technology that will arrive over the next 50 years and beyond.

Tadashi Tokieda discovers new physical phenomena by looking at the everyday world with the eyes of a child.

A scientist and programmer with a literary bent, Valeria Pettorino thinks multiple angles and diverse points of view are needed to unriddle the nature of dark matter and dark energy.

Mario Jurić is leading the push to get astronomy ready for the torrents of data that are about to flow.

Renee Reijo Pera has spent decades uncovering how the timing of embryonic development contributes to health and disease.

Maria-Luiza Pedrotti is illuminating the unseen worlds of plastic-eating bacteria that teem in massive ocean garbage patches.

Rosaly Lopes has visited dozens of active volcanoes on Earth and discovered even more elsewhere in the solar system. Her work is helping to establish whether volcanoes on distant moons could create conditions friendly to life.