What's up in
Q&A
Latest Articles
The NASA Engineer Who’s a Mathematician at Heart
Christine Darden worked at NASA for 40 years, helping make supersonic planes quieter and forging a path for women to follow in her footsteps.
A Prodigy Who Cracked Open the Cosmos
Frank Wilczek has been at the forefront of theoretical physics for the past 50 years. He talks about winning the Nobel Prize for work he did as a student, his solution to the dark matter problem, and the God of a scientist.
Catherine Dulac Finds Brain Circuitry Behind Sex-Specific Behaviors
Catherine Dulac is overturning preconceptions about “male” and “female” instincts and opening new avenues to treating postpartum depression.
The Computer Scientist Who Shrinks Big Data
Jelani Nelson designs clever algorithms that only have to remember slivers of massive data sets. He also teaches kids in Ethiopia how to code.
Searching Symbols for the Rules of Change
Bryna Kra searches for the patterns in sequences of numbers that explain how complicated dynamical systems evolve over time.
The Cosmologist Who Dreams in the Universe’s Dark Threads
Cora Dvorkin discovered new possibilities for what dark matter could be. Now she’s devising unorthodox ways to identify it.
A Scientist Who Delights in the Mundane
From crumpled paper to termite mounds to three-sided coins, L. Mahadevan has turned the whole world into his laboratory.
To Boldly Go Where No Internet Protocol Has Gone Before
Vinton Cerf helped create the internet 40 years ago, and he’s still working to connect people around the world — and off it.
Complexity Scientist Beats Traffic Jams Through Adaptation
To tame urban traffic, the computer scientist Carlos Gershenson finds that letting transportation systems adapt and self-organize often works better than trying to predict and control them.