Biology
Discoverer of Neural Circuits for Parenting Wins $3-Million Breakthrough Prize
Biologist Catherine Dulac netted one of four big life sciences awards. Also announced were one for mathematics and two for physics
Stories by Zeeya Merali
Physics
This Twist on Schrödinger’s Cat Paradox Has Major Implications for Quantum Theory
A laboratory demonstration of the classic “Wigner’s friend” thought experiment could overturn cherished assumptions about reality
Space
First Ever Picture of a Black Hole Scoops $3-Million Prize
The Event Horizon Telescope team is one of six winners of the Breakthrough Prize, which covers physics, the life sciences and mathematics
Biology
Revolutionary Microscopy Technique Nets Most Lucrative Prize in Science
The Breakthrough awards, each worth U.S. $3 million, honor advances in the life sciences, physics and mathematics
Space
Universe’s Baby Picture Wins $3 Million
Image joins 13 other winners in lucrative Breakthrough Prizes
Physics
LIGO Black Hole Echoes Hint at General Relativity Breakdown
Gravitational wave data show tentative signs of firewalls or other exotic physics
Physics
Black-Hole Fireworks Win Big in Multimillion-Dollar Science Prizes
Breakthrough awards announce winners in physics, life sciences and mathematics
The Sciences
Quantum 'spookiness' passes toughest test yet
A cunning experiment plugs loopholes in previous demonstrations of quantum "spookiness," a concept that galled Einstein
Health
Did Cancer Evolve to Protect Us?
A physics-based, “atavistic” model posits that cancer is a “safe mode” for stressed cells and suggests that oxygen and immunotherapy are the best ways to beat the disease...
The Sciences
A Meta-Law to Rule Them All: Physicists Devise a “Theory of Everything”
“Constructor theory” unites in one framework how information is processed in the classical and quantum realms
Space
Stephen Hawking: "There Are No Black Holes"
The notion of an "event horizon," from which nothing can escape, is incompatible with quantum theory, Hawking says
The Sciences
Fat Gravity Particle Gives Clues to Dark Energy
Force-carrying "gravitons" with mass could help to explain the universe's accelerating expansion
Computing
Temporal Cloak Erases Data from History
A technique that hides rapid data streams could provide ultrasecure communications
The Sciences
Quantum Gas Goes below Absolute Zero
Ultracold atoms pave way for negative-Kelvin materials
Tech
Quantum Cryptography Conquers Noise Problem
Encoded photons sent a record distance along busy optical fibers
Tech
Leap Second Granted Extra Time
Vote to unshackle clock time from its link to Sun is postponed to 2015
The Sciences
Rummaging for a Final Theory: Can a 1960s Approach Unify Gravity with the Rest of Physics?
To unify the four forces of nature, physicists are turning to Lie groups, an approach famously resurrected in 2007 by a surfer-dude theorist
Space
Splitting Time from Space—New Quantum Theory Topples Einstein's Spacetime
Buzz about a quantum gravity theory that sends space and time back to their Newtonian roots
The Sciences
Splitting Time from Space—The Evidence
Hořava gravity could explain missing spatial dimensions in a computer simulation
Policy & Ethics
Did China's Nuclear Tests Kill Thousands and Doom Future Generations?
Radioactive clouds hung over villagers as China detonated nuclear bombs in the air for four decades
