The black hole information paradox comes to an end.

What is an individual? Biology seeks clues in information theory.

A new theorem maps out the limits of quantum physics.

Scientists uncover the universal geometry of geology. I've been fascinated by patterns in nature from snow flakes and crystals to mud cracks for as long as I can remember.

The simple math problem we still can't solve. Resist the temptation.

Michael Cunningham on Virginia Woolf’s literary revolution.

The social life of forests. And a portrait of the scientist who inspired one of the characters in The Overstory by Richards Powers.

Physicists pin down nuclear reaction from moments after the Big Bang.

How neutral theory altered ideas about biodiversity.

30 Jahre danach: Die zweite Chance. Merkels europapolitische Kehrtwende und der innerdeutsche Vereinigungsprozess. Essay by Jürgen Habermas. English translation.

Brain cell DNA refolds itself to aid memory recall.

Suffering, unfaltering Manet. Review of Manet and Modern Beauty: The Artist’s Last Years an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, May 26–September 8, 2019; and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, October 8, 2019–January 12, 2020.

Valeria Luiselli reviews Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, February 9–September 19, 2020.

The work of Paul Celan is now available in English in its entirety. I read much of his work (in German) when I studied philosophy as part of a course on Derrida.

The year in math and computer science. The year in biology. The year in physics. The year in science. Another year in science.