How nonequilibrium thermodynamics speaks to the mystery of life
In his 1944 book What is Life?, Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger argued that organisms stay alive precisely by staving off…
Month: February 2017
Solving a math problem to create art
Optimization is the mathematical quest for the best way to do something, from finding the shortest distance between two places…
The Internet of Things wants to link all facets of our world
A 94Fifty looks like an ordinary basketball. You can inflate, dribble, pass, shoot, swoosh and slam-dunk it. But there’s more…
When your stuff spies on you
In October 2016, hackers hit a company called Dyn. Hackers are people who write computer programs that can break into…
The return of supersolids!
We learn it from a young age: solids hold their shapes; liquids flow. Physical states of matter are mutually exclusive.…
Making a match
In the summer of 2012, Carole Baker’s oncologist told her she was eligible to join a clinical trial just getting…