‘People say my book gave them a panic attack’: When We Cease to Understand the World author Benjamín Labatut
His page-turning books about quantum physics and game theory have given the Chilean writer a cult following – and won him famous fans from Stephen Fry to Björk and Barack Obama
June 2024
‘It’s the perfect place’: London Underground hosts tests for ‘quantum compass’ that could replace GPS
Subatomic instrument will be able to accurately pinpoint locations under ground and under water where satellite signals cannot reach
Alex Bellos's Monday puzzle
Can you solve it? Do you think like an engineer?
A curious cup and some wacky wheels
‘We’re trying to find the shape of space’: scientists wonder if the universe is like a doughnut
Rather than stretching to infinity and beyond, the universe may have a topology that can eventually be mapped
April 2024
Other lives
Brian Haywood obituary
Astronomers discover Milky Way’s biggest stellar black hole – 33 times mass of sun
The big idea
The big idea: are we about to discover a new force of nature?
World’s top cosmologists convene to question conventional view of the universe
Wafer-thin, stretchy and strong as steel: could ‘miracle’ material graphene finally transform our world?
Science Weekly
Remembering physicist Peter Higgs – podcast
Peter Higgs obituary
Peter Higgs, physicist who proposed Higgs boson, dies aged 94
Study sheds light on the white dwarf star, likely destroyer of our solar system
Science Weekly
Horny tortoises and solar mysteries: what scientists can learn from a total eclipse – podcast
New 3D cosmic map raises questions over future of universe, scientists say
March 2024
Brief letters
Younge writing on racism best since Baldwin
Science Weekly
A waterworld with a boiling ocean and the end of dark matter? The week in science – podcast
Controversial new theory of gravity rules out need for dark matter
Brief letters
One rule for good employee relations
February 2024
Quantum physics makes small leap with microscopic gravity measurement
Experiment records minuscule gravitational pull as a step to understanding how force operates at subatomic level