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Sheldon Lee Glashow

[long_description] The word serendipity, the art of stumbling on fortunate discoveries while searching for something else, was coined by Horace Walpole in 1754. In an alphabetical tour running from the first aniline dye to the science of fermentation, Nobel laureate Sheldon Lee Glashow recounts twenty-six episodes in which accident and a prepared mind reshaped science, among them Botox, dynamite, gamma-ray bursts, LSD, the microwave oven, pulsars, radioactivity and Viagra.

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The Year in Review

The Editors

[short_description] As the end of the year approaches, we are pleased to mark the relaunch of Inference with a new season of essays, insights, and intellectual exchange. Inference is now accepting submissions from authors worldwide.

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On the Laser-Fusion Milestone

Daniel Jassby

[short_description] On December 5, 2022, the National Ignition Facility recorded the first energy gain in fusion history. However, the prospect of fusion energy in the near future remains distant, writes Daniel Jassby.

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Planetary Intelligence

Charles Lineweaver

[short_description] Can the idea of intelligence as a collective property be extended to a planetary scale? A recent paper explores possible trajectories for the long-term evolution of inhabited planets, including our own.

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Counting in the Dark

Partha Ghose

[short_description] Satyendra Nath Bose was a legendary figure in twentieth century physics. Partha Ghose, a former student of Bose, pays tribute to a trailblazer who helped forge a new direction in quantum mechanics.

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Agents in the Ether

David Kordahl

[short_description] In Imperial Science, Bruce Hunt details how the desire for quick communications across the British Empire, drove progress in the physical sciences towards a theory of the electromagnetic field.

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The Kilogram

Jeremy Bernstein

[short_description] Prior to 2018, the standard for the kilogram was a platinum alloy cylinder created in 1889 and stored in Paris. In this note, Jeremy Bernstein explains how the kilogram is now defined using fundamental constants.

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The Quest for Fusion Energy

Daniel Jassby

[short_description] 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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Before Before

Stanley Deser

[short_description] More than most laymen, physicists are floored by the idea of the Big Bang. They are confounded also by the structures that govern the resulting universe. They know too much not to feel mystified.

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Heart of Darkness

Subir Sarkar

[short_description] 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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Underselling Hawking

Bernard Carr

[short_description] Four years after the death of Stephen Hawking, Charles Seife published a biography, Hawking Hawking. It painted him as a second-rate physicist who manipulated the media for his own fame.

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A Lonely Universe

Charles Lineweaver

[short_description] Is anybody out there? Likely not. The occurrence of intelligent life on Earth is moot when modeling for its likelihood on other planets.

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