Social Media Ideas for Alan Lightman

Quantum Physicist Takes Aim at the Universe's Mysterious Arrow of Time

Scientists and philosophers have argued over the nature of time since … well, since time immemorial. Is time real, or is it a convenient illusion? Why does time seem to flow in jus...

Fine-Tuning — for the Universe or for Life? A Physicist Exercises His Imagination

Teetering on the brink of science fiction is the supposition that advanced civilizations would utilize black holes for energy sources. Source

New Carlo Rovelli book challenges science's understanding of reality and the universe

In his latest book, the world-renowned physicist draws on science and philosophy to explore the notion that the university and reality are fully knowable.

Einstein Refused to Believe This, But It Could Explain the Universe

A physicist proposes that quantum uncertainty affects the entire universe: we cannot both know how large the universe is and how fast it is expanding.

Love After Life: Nobel-Winning Physicist Richard Feynman’s Extraordinary Letter to His Departed Wife

Where the hard edge of physics meets the vulnerable metaphysics of the human heart.

BOOK REVIEW: A physicist’s guide to life, the universe and everything

Read an extract from Chanda Prescod-Weinstein’s The Edge of Space-Time

The opening chapter to the New Scientist Book Club's read for September sees Chanda Prescod-Weinstein explore what we gain when we look at the universe from the margins

The danger of viewing the cosmos as a mirror that shows us ourselves

It is only natural to view the world, or even the entire universe, through the lens of humanity – we’re human, after all. But columnist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein says we can appreci...

‘Thinking about the edges of space-time can help build a better world’

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, New Scientist columnist and author of the September read for the New Scientist Book Club, The Edge of Space-Time, on why the big questions in physics matt...

Conservation Laws and Life: If It Looks Designed, It Is

In the early 20th century, a remarkable discovery came to light that showed a foundational basis for the conservation laws of physics. Source

The Common Language of Science: Einstein’s Clarion Call to Divided Humanity in a Rare 1941 Recording

“Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem — in my opinion — to characterize our age.”

On the Equality of All Things by Carlo Rovelli review – a physicist’s guide to life, the universe and everything

Near-mystical musings from a scientist who believes we are on the brink of a revolution in understanding ourselvesUnder the letter “B” in the index at the back of Carlo Rovelli’s l...

What Happens When We Die

"How can a creature who will certainly die have an understanding of things that will exist forever?"

The Remarkable Life-Friendly Properties of Sunlight and Water

“The right light,” says Dr. McLatchie, would be like the thickness of “a few playing cards in a stack stretching beyond the galaxy of Andromeda.”  Source

The Composer

In the Review’s October 22 issue, Matthew Aucoin surveys Philip Glass’s six-decade musical career, occasioned by the premiere of his new symphony, Lincoln, at Tanglewood this past...

Escaping Flatland: Biological World Models and the Laplace Engine

Cambridge, MA – MIT Media Lab – EmTech Future. More than two centuries ago, the French polymath Pierre-Simon Laplace conceptualized a powerful scientific thought experiment that wo...

Escaping Flatland: Biological World Models and the Laplace Engine

Cambridge, MA – MIT Media Lab – EmTech Future. More than two centuries ago, the French polymath Pierre-Simon Laplace conceptualized a powerful scientific thought experiment that wo...

So, You Say that No Cosmologists Have Ever Claimed the Universe Came from Nothing?

Like mighty Samson of old, in a single-handed effort physicist Bruce Gordon responded to 1,870+ comments. Source

‘A Fury of Dark Energies’

A biography of Peter Matthiessen captures his antithetical actions and character while never losing sight of his ardent attentiveness to the natural world.

Improvisation and the Quantum of Consciousness

Inside the brain's secret portal to remembering the future.

[Перевод] Спросите Итана: действительно ли свет живёт вечно?

Итан Сигел (американский астрофизик‑теоретик и научный журналист, автор рубрики «Спросите Итана», один из пропагандистов современных научных знаний), опубликовал статью о природе с...

Inner Space, Outer Space, and How to Be an Astronaut in the Cosmos of Connection: Eric Berne on the Key to True Intimacy

"A star is the glowing light inside the other person, distantly seen, brave soul’s tiny flame, too bright to approach without great courage and integrity."

The Real-Life Medicine and Science Behind Oppenheimer’s Demon

Novelist Geoffrey Simmons explains how he drew on his background as an ER doctor and disaster preparedness expert to make his story real and plausible. Source

Probability Theory Pioneer Mark Kac on the Unpredictability of Creativity and the Two Types of Geniuses

"Creative people live in two worlds. One is the ordinary world which they share with others and in which they are not in any special way set apart from their fellow men. The other...