Explore mind-bending developments in basic science and math research. Quanta Magazine is an award-winning, editorially independent magazine published by the Simons Foundation.
Showing Season 2016 of 9
Season 2016
2016
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01. Leslie Valiant: Searching for the Algorithms Underlying Life
2016-01-29
Leslie Valiant explains the term "ecorithm."
02. Are We Alone in the Universe?
2016-02-04
David Kaplan explores the best ways to search for alien life on distant planets.
03. Michael Atiyah's Imaginative State of Mind
2016-03-04
Michael Atiyah discusses beauty in mathematics.
04. David Deamer: How We’re Studying the Origins of Life
2016-03-17
David Deamer explains how his laboratory mimics the extreme conditions found on volcanoes in the early Earth.
05. Is That 'Bump' a New Particle?
2016-04-14
David Kaplan explains how a curious signal in the Large Hadron Collider's latest data could upset the Standard Model of physics — or mean nothing at all.
06. Tiny Tests Seek the Universe's Big Mysteries
2016-05-04
David Moore explains why we might expect to find strange things when we study gravity at small scales.
07. David Moore: Tabletop Physics
2016-05-05
Stanford University physicist David Moore explains how his team’s tabletop experiment uses lasers and tiny glass spheres to test gravity.
08. Janna Levin on Science and Culture
2016-05-06
Janna Levin talks about her roles as scientific director at a “center for art and innovation” in Brooklyn and as a physicist and writer.
09. Ken Ono: A Life Inspired by an Unexpected Genius
2016-05-23
Ken Ono explains how Ramanujan has served as his “guardian angel” throughout his life and career.
10. Suchitra Sebastian: An Explorer of Quantum Borderlands
2016-06-10
Suchitra Sebastian talks about how extreme conditions can create unexpected quantum behavior.
11. How Does Life Come From Randomness?
2016-06-30
David Kaplan explains how the law of increasing entropy could drive random bits of matter into the stable, orderly structures of life.
12. Miranda Cheng: A Moonshine Master Toys with String Theory
2016-08-04
Miranda Cheng explains what umbral moonshine is and how it might illuminate string theory.
13. Tracy Slatyer: A Seeker of Dark Matter’s Hidden Light
2016-09-01
Tracy Slatyer explains why she’s not disappointed when a mysterious cosmic signal turns out to be something other than dark matter.
14. Peter and Rosemary Grant
2016-09-22
Peter and Rosemary Grant explain how our understanding of evolution has changed in their lifetimes.
15. Pencils Down: The Art of Teaching Math and Science
2016-10-11
What can we learn from the best teachers on the front lines? To shine a spotlight on this linchpin of our education system, Quanta Magazine followed four master science and math teachers into their classrooms.
16. Pencils Down: Channa Comer of Baychester Middle School
2016-10-11
Channa Comer teaches 6th-grade science. She focuses on engagement so kids will want to keep learning.
17. Pencils Down: Mike Zitolo of School of the Future
2016-10-11
Michael Zitolo is turning the way science is approached in the classroom upside down.
18. Pencils Down: Soni Midha of East Side Community High School
2016-10-11
In school or in life, Soni Midha wants her math students to be able to prove why something is correct.
19. Pencils Down: Aaron Mathieu of Acton-Boxborough Regional High School
2016-10-11
Students need a chance to fail at science to learn about its process, says Aaron Mathieu.
20. Pencils Down: Channa Comer Teaching About Scientific Controls
2016-10-11
What's a control? Channa Comer challenges her students to explain and work things out for themselves.
21. Helen Quinn: A Wormhole Between Physics and Education
2016-10-18
A Wormhole Between Physics and Education
22. Michael Costanzo: Giant Genetic Map Reveals Life’s Hidden Links
2016-10-26
Michael Costanzo, a biologist at the University of Toronto and a lead author on the new study, explains why it’s important to understand how genes interact.
23. Richard Lenski: A Conductor of Evolution’s Subtle Symphony
2016-11-03
Richard Lenski discusses how he has been surprised by evolution.
24. Cynthia Dwork: How to Force Our Machines to Play Fair
2016-11-23
Cynthia Dwork explains how to conduct a survey that asks people if they do embarrassing — or even illicit — things.
25. Erik Verlinde: The Case Against Dark Matter
2016-11-29
Erik Verlinde describes how emergent gravity and dark energy can explain away dark matter.
26. Janet Conrad: On a Hunt for a Ghost of a Particle
2016-12-08
Janet Conrad explains how sterile neutrinos might help physicists move past the Standard Model.
27. Elena Aprile: In the Deep, a Drive to Find Dark Matter
2016-12-20
Elena Aprile explains how she hunts for dark matter in the world’s largest underground laboratory.