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Claims that artificial intelligence will usher in a new scientific and social era have been attracting funding for decades, but the changes they’ve achieved have not been as advertised. Historian James Sumner considers the limits of science’s ability to plan a revolution.
Sociotechnical visions of the future can motivate researchers to create a better world, but as social scientist Benjamin K. Sovacool argues, they can also blind the scientific community to potential downsides.
Understanding what cutting-edge AI models are doing ‘under the hood’ requires not just theoretical research but also well-controlled computational experiments. Savannah Thais explains why physics datasets may be the testing ground that AI developers need and how physicists can play a critical role in developing trustworthy AI.
The successes of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) and the Joint European Torus (JET) showcase how fusion energy research requires bold decisions, teamwork and strong partnership with funders.
The abstract as a 200-word summary that readers click through to access a full article is a staple of scientific publishing. But as Aileen Fyfe explains, this is only one of the roles that abstracts have performed in the history of scientific communication.
Condensed matter is one of the largest and most prolific areas of physics, but it looms small in the public imagination. In this Comment, historian Joseph D. Martin argues that its relationship with technology might be to blame.
Petros Koumoutsakos argues that the intellectual space between AI and computational science is home to exciting opportunities for scientific discovery.
In 1931, the psychoanalyst Carl Jung took on an unusual patient, the brilliant young physicist, Wolfgang Pauli. Arthur I. Miller tells the story of their friendship, how they impacted each other’s work, and reflects on creativity.
Science and society are inextricably entangled, but the discussion of social issues in optics and photonics is, at best, treated as peripheral to the field. A group of researchers, technicians, administrative staff, and clinical liaisons share how they came together to start a conversation recognizing these oft-disregarded issues.
In an age of expensive experiments and hype around new data-driven methods, researchers understandably want to ensure they are gleaning as much insight from their data as possible. Rachel C. Kurchin argues that there is still plenty to be learned from older approaches without turning to black boxes.
The science of food is strongly connected to chemistry and sensory science, but chewing and swallowing is also governed by soft matter physics as it involves processing materials that are deformable, easily fractured or that melt at low temperatures. What can physics tell us about these processes, and what questions remain?
Women and people of colour are underrepresented in physics in many parts of the world, to the detriment of the field. How do academics’ beliefs about the role of ‘brilliance’ in career success contribute to these representation gaps, and what can be done to address them?
