Pencils Down

Christine Darden describes what it was like working at NASA in the 1960s and how she became an authority on minimizing sonic booms.

Frank Wilczek discusses the work that led to his Nobel and the inherent beauty of physical law.

Alex Kontorovich, professor of mathematics at Rutgers University, breaks down the notoriously difficult Riemann hypothesis in this comprehensive explainer.

In 2020, the study of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was undoubtedly the most urgent priority. But there were also other major breakthroughs in the life sciences.

For mathematicians and computer scientists, 2020 was full of discipline-spanning discoveries and celebrations of creativity.

This year, two teams of physicists made profound progress on ideas that could bring about the next revolution in physics. Another has identified the source of a longstanding cosmic mystery.

Catherine Dulac of Harvard University discusses the roots of “male” and “female” parenting behaviors in mammalian brains.

Jelani Nelson explains how his streaming algorithms answer questions about big data without having to remember everything they’ve seen.

Bryna Kra explains how to describe complex systems in symbols.