Galaxies, the expanding universe, and the Big Bang September 19, 2021 Stars are so far away, they appear as unresolved points of light, even through modern telescopes. But seventeenth-century astronomers noticed a number of other objects in the sky that were extended and often fuzzy looking. Read More
Celebrating women in STEM February 11, 2021 International Day of Women and Girls in Science marks an opportunity to celebrate the brilliant women whose ideas have graced our bookshelves and touched our minds. Read More
By Design | The World According to Physics March 24, 2020 Every branch of knowledge seeks to provide an account of—something: the past, the present, the mind, culture, institutions, social and physical phenomena. Read More
An interview with Jim Al‑Khalili on The World According to Physics March 20, 2020 Making even the most enigmatic scientific ideas accessible and captivating, quantum physicist, New York Times bestselling author, and BBC host Jim Al‑Khalili offers a fascinating and illuminating look at why physics matters to everyone. Read More
Katherine Freese on how relativity rejuvenated her career March 10, 2020 Katherine Freese is director of Nordita, the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics, in Stockholm, and author of The Cosmic Cocktail, which tells of the epic quest to solve one of the most compelling enigmas of modern science—what is the universe made of? This is the story of how one of today’s foremost pioneers in the study of dark matter came back from the brink of burnout because of Relativity. Read More
Jim Al‑Khalili on The World According to Physics March 10, 2020 Shining a light on the most profound insights revealed by modern physics, Jim Al‑Khalili invites us all to understand what this crucially important science tells us about the universe and the nature of reality itself. Read More
Was Einstein the first to discover general relativity? March 09, 2020 On November 25, 1915, Einstein submitted one of the most remarkable scientific papers of the twentieth century to the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin. The paper presented the final form of what are called the Einstein Equations, the field equations of gravity which underpin Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. Read More
Dan Hooper on rethinking our universe’s first moments November 18, 2019 Over the past century, cosmologists have pieced together a remarkably detailed picture of our universe and its history, spanning from the first seconds that followed the Big Bang up to the present. Read More
Sonia Contera on Nano Comes to Life November 01, 2019 Nano Comes to Life opens a window onto the nanoscale—the infinitesimal realm of proteins and DNA where physics and cellular and molecular biology meet—and introduces readers to the rapidly evolving nanotechnologies that are allowing us to manipulate the very building blocks of life. Read More
Searching for Spirit in Science Publishing September 19, 2019 Not long ago, I read an article in Scientific American about the power of words and how language shapes the brain. The article, written by a young Japanese postdoc in neuroscience, begins by invoking the Japanese word, kotodama, which can be translated to mean, literally, “word spirit.” Read More
Getting outside when day turns to night May 29, 2019 What’s the best way to commemorate a historic scientific experiment? Centenaries are popular, and one of the biggest is upcoming, the centenary of the 1919 eclipse observations that confirmed Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Read More
Daniel Kennefick on No Shadow of a Doubt May 01, 2019 In 1919, British scientists led extraordinary expeditions to Brazil and Africa to test Albert Einstein’s revolutionary new theory of general relativity in what became the century’s most celebrated scientific experiment. The result ushered in a new era and made Einstein a global celebrity by confirming his dramatic prediction that the path of light rays would be bent by gravity. Read More
William R. Newman on Newton the Alchemist November 07, 2018 When Isaac Newton’s alchemical papers surfaced at a Sotheby’s auction in 1936, the quantity and seeming incoherence of the manuscripts were shocking. Read More
Martin Rees on On the Future October 01, 2018 Humanity has reached a critical moment. Our world is unsettled and rapidly changing, and we face existential risks over the next century. Various prospects for the future—good and bad—are possible. Read More
