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Mathematics

Reflections on an Essay by Wigner

Sergiu Klainerman

In a new essay, Sergiu Klainerman retraces the development of modern mathematics, unexpected consequences in physics, and the perennial question of whether mathematics is itself a science.

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Physics

The Quest for Fusion Energy

Daniel Jassby

Despite repeated claims that the prospects for commercialization have never looked brighter, the stark reality is that practical fusion-based electric power remains a very distant prospect.

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Physics

Heart of Darkness

Subir Sarkar

Is the standard model of cosmology wrong? Subir Sarkar argues that the discovery of dark energy, the basis of widely accepted models, was simply an accident waiting to happen.

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Anthropology

The Nature of Art

Armand Marie Leroi

Can pieces of art be related in the way that biological species can? In living things, phylogenic links are forged by the inheritance of genetic material; in culture, by influential ideas.

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Medicine

+ French version

Thunder Out of China

Yuri Deigin

Questions about the origins of COVID-19 are of more than academic interest. For the moment, the best explanation seems to be that the virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

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Medicine

+ French version

Battlefield Medicine

Benjamin Davido

The AstraZeneca debacle in France, at the least, showed that to stop vaccinating for 48–72 hours in the name of the precautionary principle is to restart work on vaccine awareness from scratch.

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Economics

Monetary Faith

Philip Pilkington

Central banks argue that economists should have faith in the natural interest rate and try their best to accommodate the banking system to it. But shouldn’t it rather be judged by its works?

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Medicine

On the Futility of Contact Tracing

Jay Bhattacharya & Mikko Packalen

Contact tracing may be useful when the number of cases in an epidemic is very small, and only if it is applied aggressively. In cases that do not fit this description, it may make an outbreak worse.

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Physics

+ French version

The Dark Matter Enigma

Jean-Pierre Luminet

Unveiling the nature of dark matter is one of the biggest challenges in astrophysics. Jean-Pierre Luminet confronts the many unresolved questions that obscure this perplexing aspect of our universe.