Ernst Mach found atoms useful. But he didn’t believe they were real. The 19th century physicist-philosopher gained his greatest fame as an atom denier. He believed that reality consisted of sounds and ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Hard problems are usually not a welcome sight. But cryptographers love them. That’s because certain hard math problems underpin the ...

Scientists are like prospectors, excavating the natural world seeking gems of knowledge about physical reality. And in the century just past, scientists have dug deep enough to discover that reality’s ...