Jim Simons’ Life, Legacy and 5 Guiding Principles

The oceans teem with photosynthesizing bacteria, tiny-tailed dinoflagellates gobbling other plankton, algae surrounded by intricate glass skeletons. In the 1960s, the ecologist G. Evelyn Hutchinson pointed out something confusing: why do so many kinds of plankton exist?

Penn physicist Randall Kamien, visiting scholar Lauren Niu, and collaborator Geneviève Dion of Drexel bring unprecedented levels of predictability to the ancient practice of knitting by developing a mathematical model that could be used to create a new class of lightweight, ultra-strong materials.

Princeton geoscientists Xinning Zhang and Ashley Maloney have discovered that a geology technique shows promise in detecting cancer-like cells. If their preliminary results bear out, they may have identified a new signature for cancer, which could mean earlier diagnosis and better outcomes.

Renowned cosmologist David Spergel joins Brian Greene to discuss the triumphs and tensions of precision cosmology, exploring remarkable successes as well as persistent discrepancies bedeviling current understanding.