What We're Reading

From studies of “geometric frustration,” scientists learn how paper folds under pressure.

The evidence mounts that bacteria can be effectively immortal.

Humans have sent their progeny across time and 300 million miles of space in search of long-lost relatives, ancient roots of a family tree that might be traced in the Red Planet’s soil.

IceCube, the kilometer-wide neutrino detector nestled deep beneath the South Pole, has traced a neutrino back to its far-flung birthplace: a supermassive black hole tearing a star to pieces in a galaxy 750 million light-years away.

After surviving the descent, the rover sent back this picture from the Martian surface.

Cygnus X-1, one of the first identified black holes, is much weightier than expected, raising new questions about how such objects form.

Researchers in Japan are enlisting an army of citizens to explore how storms on Earth create extreme bursts of radiation.

Experiment connects three devices with entangled photons, demonstrating a key technique that could enable a future quantum internet.

David Spergel, director of the Flatiron Institute's Center for Computational Astrophysics, and others explain what the shape of the universe tells us about its past and its future.

Simons Senior Fellow and Brown University cosmologist Stephon Alexander joins other scientists in describing how engaging in a creative pursuit can stimulate creativity and foster boldness and tenacity in the lab and beyond.