When Jocelyn Bell first observed the emissions of a pulsar in 1967, the rhythmic pulses of radio waves so confounded astronomers that they considered whether the light could be signals sent by an alien civilization.
Alex Barnett takes a small silver tuning fork from his backpack, thwacks it against his desk and holds it to a microphone. On his computer, the musical tone appears as a steady succession of identical sine waves.
“It’s an A4, or the A above middle C,” says Barnett, who plays classical and jazz piano in addition to serving as group leader for numerical analysis at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Mathematics (CCM). “That’s 440 hertz, or 440 oscillations per second.”
Story for the Simons Foundation's 2019 annual report.
Artificial intelligence has taken the tech world by storm. AI systems can drive cars, recognize faces and even dethrone world champions at games such as Go. At the Flatiron Institute, scientists are leveraging the same techniques to simulate the universe, track neuron activity in the brain and predict the behavior of many entangled electrons.
Part of the Simons Foundation's 25th-anniversary book.
The European Academy of Sciences has elected Angel Rubio as a fellow of its materials science division in recognition of his scientific achievements.
A new machine learning tool can calculate the energy required to make — or break — a molecule with higher accuracy than conventional methods. While the tool can currently only handle simple molecules, it paves the way for future insights in quantum chemistry.
The National Academy of Sciences has announced the election of 146 new members in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Among those honored are 12 Simons-supported scientists, including Andrew Millis, co-director of the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Quantum Physics (CCQ). The academy, established in 1863 by an act of Congress, provides independent, objective advice to the United States on matters related to science and technology.
Seven researchers supported by the Simons Foundation and board member Margaret Hamburg are among the latest group of prominent artists, scholars, scientists and leaders elected as fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
David Spergel, director of the Center for Computational Astrophysics (CCA), is among 232 astronomers and astrophysicists honored as the first class of fellows of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). The distinction recognizes the honorees for enhancing and sharing humanity’s scientific understanding of the universe.
The Albert Einstein Society in Bern, Switzerland, will award its 2020 Einstein Medal to the international collaboration of scientists behind the Event Horizon Telescope. The prize recognizes the group for their landmark work imaging the shadow of the supermassive black hole at the heart of the elliptical galaxy Messier 87.
Quanta Magazine is expanding its illumination of fundamental math and science with a new podcast titled “The Joy of x.” Hosted by mathematician Steven Strogatz, the new series features intimate conversations with scientists about their work, discoveries, frustrations and journeys.