Physics
The race against Hitler to build the first nuclear bomb
The bomb was necessary to the Allies, but still horrified those responsible for its development – many of them refugees from Nazism
Emilie du Châtelet – a lone voice among Enlightenment thinkers
The brilliant physicist’s warning to her contemporaries not to carry respect for great men to the point of idolatry fell on deaf ears
Is now the most exciting point in human history?
Since today’s computers can process information beyond human capabilities, we are on a precipice never faced before, says Yuval Noah Harari, in another sweeping narrative
Seeing the dark in a new light
Even in the deepest mineshaft we’re surrounded by light we can’t see, explains Jacqueline Yallop, drawing on quantum physics to help dispel ordinary night terrors
Circular arguments
Aristotle had long proved that the Earth was spherical, and even the illiterate masses of early medieval Europe were aware of the fact, says James Hannam
Time and motion study
Since the publication of his debut, Remainder, Tom McCarthy has established himself as the Christopher Nolan of literary fiction: his…
Physicist’s notebook
Spring is coming. There was snow in the garden till last week, here in Canada, where I have been spending…
Small things misbehaving
Helgoland is a craggy German island in the North Sea. Barely bigger than a few fields, it reaches high above…
A singular mind
Roger Penrose on his Nobel Prize, the beauty of physics – and why AI is nothing to fear
Evil genius
One day someone is going to have to write the definitive study of Wikipedia’s influence on letters. What, after all,…
Time immemorial
Some books elucidate their subject, mapping and sharpening its boundaries. The Clock Mirage, by the mathematician Joseph Mazur, is not…
The only thing that baffled Einstein was his own popularity
On 6 November 1919, at a joint meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Royal Society, held at London’s…
The powerful magnetism of James Clerk Maxwell
Chances are, you are reading these words in some room or other. Build a wall down the middle of it,…
Dau is the strangest and most unsettling piece of art to come out of Russia in years
Dau is not so much a film as a document of a mass human experiment. The result is dark, brilliant…
Men and women are born equal but different. Deal with it
I was delighted to see Claire Foy win an Emmy award for her portrayal of the Queen in the fine…
Wonder is all around
Different people find different things impressive. Some claim, for instance, to experience a sense of wonder at the fact of…
In the sky with diamonds
The beliefs of physicists are infinitely kookier than anything in the Bible, says Alexander Masters
The strangest objects we know of
The idea of black holes sounds so quintessentially modern and 20th-century that it may come as a surprise to learn…
Why are kids making posters for their GCSEs?
My niece, Lara, 15, has a mind like a surgical blade. On any subject, from calculus to The X Factor,…
