Though it may seem far removed from the noise of the
contemporary world, the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) has a
long history of combating threats to its scholars and their work.
Recent executive orders by President Trump attempting to
enforce...
Einstein’s general theory of relativity taught us that the
universe is expanding, but we have only recently discovered the
pace of that expansion and its consequences. View the video at
Business Insider as Robbert Dijkgraaf, Institute Director
and...
Gravitational waves were detected for the first time a year and
a half ago, when some of them throbbed through Earth. Two
incredibly sensitive detectors—one in Washington State and one in
Louisiana—picked up the distortions in spacetime, emanating...
Confronted with a theoretical question, such as whether or not
gravitational waves exist, Richard Feynman never trusted
authorities. Rather, he tried to develop and convince himself of a
solution in the simplest way possible, constructing an...
There is a crisis brewing in the cosmos, or perhaps in the
community of cosmologists, including former Members Stefano
Casertano (1983–87), George Efstathiou (1986), and Lawrence Krauss
(2005), and former Visitor David Spergel (2014) in the
School...
The Institute for Advanced Study, since its founding in 1930,
has aspired to provide an unbiased environment for international
scholars to pursue vital and groundbreaking work in the sciences
and humanities. Its mission is to recruit the world’s...
In 1934, David Hilbert, by then a grand old man of German
mathematics, was dining with Bernhard Rust, the Nazi minister of
education. Rust asked, “How is mathematics at Göttingen, now that
it is free from the Jewish influence?” Hilbert replied,...
On April 14, 1954, Albert
Einstein, one of the Institute's first Faculty members
(1933–55), gave the last lecture of his life. Speaking to physics
students at Princeton University, he remarked that although quantum
mechanics works, “it is difficult...
Steven Weinberg discusses how the development of quantum
mechanics in the first decades of the twentieth century came as a
shock to many physicists. Today, despite the great successes of
quantum mechanics, arguments continue about its meaning, and...
One gets the sense that Freeman
Dyson has seen everything. It’s not just that at 92 he’s had a
front row seat on scientific breakthroughs for the past century, or
that he’s been friends and colleagues with many of the giants of
20th-century physics...
