Natural Sciences

Time crystals are hypothetical structures that pulse without requiring any energy—like a ticking clock that never needs winding. The pattern repeats in time in much the same way that the atoms of a crystal repeat in space. The idea was so...

In Quanta's Abstractions blog, top women in mathematics and physics, including Miranda Cheng, Visitor (2011) in the School of Natural Sciences, Tracy Slatyer, Member (2010–13) in the School, Maria Chudnovsky, Veblen Research Instructor (2003–05) in...

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...

In this month's "Quantized Column," Quanta Magazine's series in which top researchers explore the process of discovery, Frank Wilczek, Professor (1989–2000) and Member (1977–78) in the School of Natural Sciences and Nobel Laureate in Physics (2004)...

In this video, Edward Witten, Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics Laureate (2012) and Charles Simonyi Professor in the School of Natural Sciences, discusses string theory and the need in physics to reconcile quantum theory, used for small...

In the 1960s, the charismatic physicist Geoffrey Chew, Member (1956) in the School of Mathematics/Natural Sciences, espoused a radical vision of the universe, and with it, a new way of doing physics, arguing that "Nature is as it is because this is...

Skip 39 light-years across our galaxy, and you’ll arrive at Trappist-1, an ultracool dwarf star with a band of special followers. This dim star hosts seven Earth-like planets within its habitable zone, according to a study published today in the...

Not just one, but seven Earth-size planets that could potentially harbor life have been identified orbiting a tiny star not too far away, offering the first realistic opportunity to search for signs of alien life outside the solar system. The...

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...

Could dark matter consist of primordial black holes, as numerous as the stars? It’s an old, improbable idea, but it made a Lazarus-like comeback a year ago, when the discovery of gravitational waves suggested that the cosmos abounds with...