Q&A

The biochemist Nick Lane thinks life first evolved in hydrothermal vents where precursors of metabolism appeared before genetic information. His ideas could lead us to think differently about aging and cancer.

Christopher Kanan is building algorithms that can continuously learn over time — the way we do.

Nia Imara is working to understand the mysterious clouds of gas and dust that collapse into stars.

Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist who became a lifeline for the worried and the curious during the pandemic, thinks that nasal spray vaccines could be the next needed breakthrough in our fight against the coronavirus.

Daniel Spielman solves important problems by thinking hard — about other questions.

Leslie Lamport revolutionized how computers talk to each other. Now he’s working on how engineers talk to their machines.

Vijay Balasubramanian investigates whether the fabric of the universe might be built from information, and what it means that physicists can even ask such a question.

Celia Escamilla-Rivera is combining large data sets with supercomputers to test general relativity against its little-known competitors.

When scientists discover genes linked to dangerous illnesses in their samples, how should they convey that news to the study participants? The geneticist Cristen Willer had to tackle that challenge.