Context
Science past and present
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Math
If the world is a computer, life is an algorithm
Cellular automata may offer the algorithmic power to mimic the laws of physics and the evolution of life.
- Science & Society
Top 10 desert island books for science fans
Some books that require your undivided attention offer substantial intellectual rewards.
- Quantum Physics
Maybe classical clockwork can explain quantum weirdness
Nobel laureate Gerard ’t Hooft proposes that a classical cause-and-effect reality underlies the probabilistic strangeness of quantum physics.
- Quantum Physics
Nobel laureates offer new interpretations of quantum mysteries
Two Nobel laureates offer novel interpretations to explain the mysteries of quantum mechanics.
- Science & Society
Trust in gravity isn’t always the best astronomy policy
Historical episodes involving Neptune, Mercury and gravity have implications for today’s dark matter and dark energy mysteries.
- Science & Society
Top 10 things everybody should know about science
Much of scientific knowledge can be condensed into a few basic principles that every educated person should know.
- Science & Society
Polls don’t identify the real science education problem
Concerns that Americans do poorly when quizzed on factual scientific knowledge don’t address deeper issues of scientific understanding.
- Math
Doctors flunk quiz on screening-test math
Many doctors, and the news media, don’t understand that because of the statistics of screening tests, a test with 90 percent accuracy can give a wrong diagnosis more than 90 percent of the time.
- Quantum Physics
Shor’s code-breaking algorithm inspired reflections on quantum information
Twenty years ago, physicists met in Santa Fe to explore the ramifications of quantum information.
- Quantum Physics
Quantum experts discuss the measurement problem: A transcript from 1994
A fairly complete transcript of a discussion about quantum physics on May 19, 1994, the last day of a workshop in Santa Fe, N.M., evolves into a more general discussion of the interpretation of quantum mechanics and the quantum measurement problem.
- Quantum Physics
Robert Redford film foretold Shor’s quantum computing bombshell
Twenty years ago, Peter Shor showed how quantum computers could break secret codes, turning the movie Sneakers from fiction to fact.
- Cosmology
Maybe time’s arrow needs ergodicity as well as entropy
Explaining the arrow of time might require an equilibrium universe with hidden ergodic dynamics.
