Marcelo Gleiser
Theoretical Physicist
Marcelo Gleiser is a professor of natural philosophy, physics, and astronomy at Dartmouth College. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a recipient of the Presidential Faculty Fellows Award from the White House and NSF, and was awarded the 2019 Templeton Prize. Gleiser has authored five books and is the co-founder of 13.8, where he writes about science and culture with physicist Adam Frank.
A second Enlightenment would have a far bigger task: Saving civilization itself.
Astronomy’s roots rest in the very origins of humanity. We have always looked to the skies for answers. We are starting to get them.
It is little more than a fancy excuse for escapist fantasizing.
Modern cosmology conjectures different possible fates for the Universe and thus for the end of time. Details depend on which model is right.
Humans are already so integrated with technology that the dream of transhumanism is a reality. Can we handle what comes next?
The engineer working on Google’s AI, called LaMDA, suffers from what we could call Michelangelo Syndrome. Scientists must beware hubris.
There is nothing more important to science than its ability to prove ideas wrong.
Science has come a long way since Mary Shelley penned “Frankenstein.” But we still grapple with the same questions.
All life forms, anywhere in our Universe, are chemically connected yet completely unique.
Singularities frustrate our understanding. But behind every singularity in physics hides a secret door to a new understanding of the world.
How efficiently could quantum engines operate?
Many people perceive the struggle to understand our Universe as a battle between science and God. But this is a false dichotomy.
From the tablets of the Babylonians to the telescopes of modern science, humans have always looked to the skies for fundamental answers.
Science and the humanities have been antagonistic for too long. Many of the big questions of our time require them to work closer than ever.
Most people have a distorted view of what being a scientist is like. Scientists need to make a greater effort to challenge stereotypes.
We cannot deduce laws about a higher level of complexity by starting with a lower level of complexity. Here, reductionism meets a brick wall.
The paradox of tribalism is that humans need a sense of belonging to be healthy and happy, but too much tribalism is deadly. We are one tribe.
Life is possible because of asymmetries, such as an imbalance between matter and antimatter and the “handedness” (chirality) of molecules.
The Universe has asymmetries, but that’s a good thing. Imperfections are essential for the existence of stars and even life itself.
From physics and alchemy to theology and eschatology, Isaac Newton’s research was rooted in a personal pursuit of the Divine.
From succubi to aliens, stories of abductions or other unsettling encounters have been with us for millennia. What explains them?
It is time to give the Russian cosmologist the credit he deserves.
The James Webb Space Telescope finally could answer the age-old question of whether we are alone in the universe.
Centuries ago, the plague forced people into quarantine for years. Isaac Newton and Galileo used the time to revolutionize the world.
Whether or not life exists elsewhere in the Universe, we can be assured of one thing: We are the only human beings in the cosmos.
Astrophysicists once believed in a static Universe, containing only the Milky Way galaxy. Science definitively proved otherwise.
“To be ignorant of causes is to be frustrated in action.” So wrote Francis Bacon, counsel to Queen Elizabeth I of England and key architect of the scientific method. In […]