Interviews

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Searching for Dark Matter with a Tabletop ‘Quantum Compass’

The physicist Alex Sushkov has developed one of the most targeted magnetic resonance experiments to date with the aim of detecting a hypothetical dark matter particle called the axion.


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Jim Gunn on Building Astronomical Instruments

April 18, 2019

The lauded astronomer Jim Gunn explains how a new spectrograph he is building will advance astronomy.

Ecologist Jennifer Dunne on Humans’ Place in Food Webs

March 21, 2019

Jennifer Dunne of the Santa Fe Institute explains how reconstructions of food webs in past ecosystems help ecologists understand both the unusual niche of humans and new clues to a more sustainable civilization.

CRISPR Pioneer Jennifer Doudna on Its Research Promise

February 27, 2019

Jennifer Doudna, one of the coinventors of CRISPR technology, discusses how her work on bacterial defenses against viruses helped lead to a discovery with a revolutionary impact on biological research.

Priyamvada Natarajan: How Black Holes Shape Galaxies

February 4, 2019

Priyamvada Natarajan explains the role of supermassive black holes in the structure and evolution of the universe.

What Is Turbulence?

January 28, 2019

Physicists use the Navier-Stokes equations to describe fluid flows, taking into account viscosity, velocity, pressure and density. But because of turbulence in fluids, proving that the equations always make sense is one of the hardest problems in physics and mathematics.

Carolina Araujo on Supporting Women in Mathematics

January 17, 2019

Carolina Araujo describes the effort to build a network of women mathematicians in Brazil.

Been Kim: A New Approach to Understanding How Machines Think

January 10, 2019

Google Brain’s Been Kim is building ways to let us interrogate the decisions made by machine learning systems.

What Is Emergence?

December 20, 2018

How do extraordinarily complex emergent phenomena — like ants assembling themselves into living bridges, or tiny water and air molecules forming into swirling hurricanes — spontaneously arise from systems of much simpler elements? The answer often depends on a transition in the interplay between the elements that resembles a phase change.

Meenakshi Wadhwa on Meteorites and the Solar System

December 13, 2018

Meenakshi Wadhwa explains how meteorites illuminate the origins of Earth and the rest of the solar system.