For decades, scientists have been working to understand the building blocks of life by studying the structures of proteins and other large biological molecules.  Using clever tricks with microscopes, electrons, and X-rays, it is possible to see the precise arrangements...

The distribution of galaxies in the universe is patchy. Galaxies are bound together in clusters made of stars, hot gas and invisible dark matter.  These galaxy clusters are part of a cosmic web of filaments, nodes and empty voids that...

Dark matter is one of the most mysterious components of the universe.  Yet it makes up 23 percent of the mass of the universe – six times the mass of ordinary, atomic matter.  Physicists have never observed dark matter particles...

It would have been hard to predict Google, Facebook and Twitter as results of the creation of the first transistor out of a chunk of silicon. Only when looking back do we see ages of stone and iron, technological revolutions...

Developing cheaper and more efficient devices to harvest energy from the sun is a major scientific challenge. One way to increase the efficiency of solar cells ­– and even make solar cells out of otherwise inactive materials – is by...

On September 14, 2015, the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) made the first direct measurement of a gravitational wave coming from deep space. That wave was generated by the collision of two black holes about 1.3 billion light-years from...

Batteries are needed everywhere, for consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and large-scale energy storage on the electrical grid. All of these applications are limited by the capacity, lifetime and safety of current battery technologies. This lecture discusses new chemistries and materials...

Imagine taking a ball of hot plasma more massive than the sun and suddenly compressing it to a super-dense object the size of a city. This sounds like science fiction, yet it is exactly what happens in the centers of...

The universe is full of giant structures like galaxies and clusters of galaxies. What holds them together? Over the past century, many diverse observations indicate that the glue holding these objects together is the gravitational pull of an invisible, elusive...