Context
Science past and present
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Science & Society
Informed wisdom trumps rigid rules when it comes to medical evidence
Narrative reviews of medical evidence offer benefits that the supposedly superior systematic approach can’t.
- Cosmology
Remembering Joe Polchinski, the modest physicist who conceived a multiverse
String theorists lament the death of Joe Polchinski, one of their field’s most esteemed and respected thinkers.
- Science & Society
Top 10 papers from Physical Review’s first 125 years
The most prestigious journal in physics celebrates its 125th anniversary, highlighting dozens of its most famous papers.
- Astronomy
Speed of universe’s expansion remains elusive
A discrepancy between two measures of the universe’s expansion rate suggests the presence of some unknown astronomical feature.
- Science & Society
2018’s Top 10 science anniversaries
2018’s Top 10 anniversaries include notable birthdays and discoveries in math, science and medicine.
- Science & Society
First controlled nuclear chain reaction achieved 75 years ago
The anniversary of the first controlled nuclear chain reaction marks an achievement of immigrants who served America in World War II.
- Science & Society
Philosophical critique exposes flaws in medical evidence hierarchies
Rankings of research methods for validity of medical evidence suffer from logical flaws, an in-depth philosophical critique concludes.
- Science & Society
An American astronomical evangelist coined the phrase ‘island universe’
Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel, a Civil War general nicknamed ‘Old Stars,’ first used ‘island universe’ in his monthly astronomy magazine.
- Quantum Physics
Quantum mysteries dissolve if possibilities are realities
Quantum mysteries can be avoided if reality encompasses possibilities as well as actualities, a new paper proposes.
- Science & Society
Debates on whether science is broken don’t fit in tweets
Amid debates over whether science is broken, many experts are proposing repairs.
- Astronomy
Eclipses show wrong physics can give right results
Math for making astronomical predictions doesn’t necessarily reflect physical reality.
- Quantum Physics
Modern-day Alice trades looking glass for wormhole to explore quantum wonderland
A new paper shows how the possibility of wormholes linking quantum-entangled black holes could be tested in the laboratory.
