Adam Frank

If physicists had a holy grail it would go by the name of Quantum Gravity.

For 60 years researchers have been searching for a way to unite the very large and the very small into a single coherent theory. But for all their efforts, Einstein's Theory of General Relativity ...

When they come — and they are coming — will the robots we deploy into human culture be capable of evil? Well, perhaps "evil" is too strong a word. Will they be capable of inflicting harm on human beings in ways that go beyond their programing?

While this may seem ...

How does science make progress? How do scientists know what they claim to know? What does it mean when scientists say they have come to a consensus?

These questions are far more than academic. We live in a world where issues of science and technology dominate headlines and policy. In ...

Two hundred and eleven comments and counting — about poetry! We here at 13.7 have come to understand what the hot-button issues are for most people. The strongest responses happen in reaction to posts about religion and science, animal welfare, diet and children's issues.

Then — unexpectedly — my ...

If you are going to shell out cash sending a kid to college, you might as well get in on their fun too. That's how my daughter's post-modern lit class slammed me into The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot.

It is, arguably, one of the most important poems of ...

This is the third installment in Adam Frank's series "How To See The Universe In A Grain Of Sand", looking for the extraordinary in the ordinary.

From the day we are born to the day we die, it's always there. Never changing, never wavering, it holds us down ...

"Zombie Apocalypse? What the hell are you talking about?"

It was our weekly astronomy group lunch when everyone, from the professors down to the undergrads, gets together for pizza. I'm not quite sure how the conversation took this turn, but at some point I quipped: "But of course that's after ...

Let's play a game. Quickly name three philosophers of any historical era and write them down. If you are really ambitious, name five.

Take your time and think about it. It's OK. I'll wait.

Now look at your names. Were any of the men or women you wrote down born ...

New technologies are not all equal. Some do nothing more than add a thin extra layer to the top-soil of human behavior (i.e., Teflon and the invention of non-stick frying pans). Some technologies, however, dig deeper, uprooting the norms of human behavior and replacing them with wholly new possibilities. For ...

America has a problem. It's an existential problem, a big one that threatens our collective future. Our problem is the failing bond between science and the American people. Luckily for us all, it's a problem that can be solved. The solution? A big party! Well, that's not the solution, but ...

Sometimes the most powerful and transformative technologies emerge by accident, an unintended consequence of other developments. When this happens, the scope and power of the new technology can't be fully appreciated until after we have embedded it in our culture.

Big Data is all that and much, much more.

"Experience is the name everyone gives their mistakes" said Oscar Wilde and it is true that, hopefully, we all learn from our mistakes. But what about science?

In school we learn about the scientific method and its emphasis on observation, hypothesis and experiments. Clearly mistakes are an important part of ...

We all know how the battle lines shake out: evangelical vs. scientist, believer vs. atheist. The culture war defined as science vs. religion is so overheated that it seems to be more of a caricature than a coherent, useful discussion. Unless, that is, someone is trying to stretch beyond the ...

Spade's arms went around her, holding her to him, muscles bulging through his blue sleeves.

That line comes from The Maltese Falcon and the guy with the blue sleeves is none other than Sam Spade. I read those words in a worn paperback copy my dad loaned me ...

When was the last time you met someone who didn't tell you they were "crazy busy"? It seems like everyone these days is overwhelmed. From the endless tasks of maintaining home and family life to the ever-accelerating pressures of the endlessly troubled, endlessly competitive economy, it seems that all of ...

My dad was horrified when, at age 12, I struck out on my own and started reading comic books. He hated them. He'd raised me on a steady diet of "real" literature, from Treasure Island to Sherlock Holmes. Flimsy comics full of lurid drawings did not measure up.

Still, every ...

We physicists are all romantics. Don't laugh; it's true. In our youth we all fall deeply in love. We fall in love with a beautiful idea: beyond this world of constant change lies another world that is perfect and timeless.

This eternal domain is made not of matter or energy. ...

Scientists can't just agree to disagree. It's not because we are stubborn or ornery (OK, maybe we are). It's because the whole point of science is to establish "public knowledge" — an understanding of the cosmos on which we can all agree. That is why there is trouble brewing at ...

Not too long ago I asked an astrobiologist colleague if he thought the search for life on Mars would be successful. His answer, delivered deadpan, stunned me.

"Oh I think we will find life on Mars," he said. "But the real question will be: Is it our life?" The point ...

How close are we to the end? How close are we to being among the last humans to ever live? Depending on who you are — your religion, politics, relative degree of pessimism or optimism — that question is bound to bring up images of some particular kind of cataclysm. ...