2016 Breakthrough Prize Winners

By Solving the Mysteries of Shape-Shifting Spaces, Mathematician Wins $3-Million Prize

The second annual Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics goes to topologist Ian Agol of the University of California, Berkeley

Breakthrough Prize for Illuminating the Brain's Secret Code

A revolutionary technique that switches brain circuits on and off has taken neuroscience by storm and is now undergoing a new round of innovation

Discoverers of Shape-Shifting Particles Win the Nobel Physics Prize

Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B. McDonald share the 2015 award for the discovery that neutrino particles can change “flavor”—and, unexpectedly, have mass

Detecting Massive Neutrinos

A giant detector in the heart of Mount Ikenoyama in Japan has demonstrated that neutrinos metamorphose in flight, strongly suggesting that these ghostly particles have mass

Solving the Solar Neutrino Problem

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory has solved a 30-year-old mystery by showing that neutrinos from the sun change species en route to the earth

Tangling with Topology

What We Talk about When We Talk about Holes

For Halloween, I wrote about a very scary topic: higher homotopy groups. Homotopy is an idea in topology, the field of math concerned with properties of shapes that stay the same no matter how you squish or stretch them, as long as you don’t tear them or glue things together...

Controlling the Brain with Light

With a technique called optogenetics, researchers can probe how the nervous system works in unprecedented detail. Their findings could lead to better treatments for psychiatric problems

Light-Sensitive Neurons Reveal the Brain's Secrets

By engineering brain cells to switch on or off in response to light, scientists are unlocking the mysteries of the mind and crafting new remedies for brain disorders

Cholesterol Conundrum

Changing HDL and LDL levels does not always alter heart disease or stroke risk

How LDL Receptors Influence Cholesterol and Atherosclerosis

The receptors bind particles carrying cholesterol and remove them from the circulation. Many Americans have too few LDL receptors, and so they are at high risk for atherosclerosis and heart attacks...

Ancient DNA

Genetic information that had seemed lost forever turns out to linger in the remains of long-dead plants and animals. Evolutionary change can at last be observed directly

No Bones about It: Ancient DNA from Siberia Hints at Previously Unknown Human Relative

For the first time, researchers describe a new type of human ancestor on the basis of DNA rather than anatomy

Alzheimer's Disease

It brings dementia and slow death to more than 100,000 Americans a year. No one knows its cause or how to stay its inexorable course. Investigators are focusing on six conceptual models of the disease...

Amyloid Protein and Alzheimer's Disease

When this protein fragment accumulates excessively in the brain, Alzheimer's disease may be the result. Understanding how that fragment forms could be the key to a treatment