Ideas

Explore firsthand accounts of research and questions posed by IAS scientists and scholars. From art history to string theory, from moral anthropology to the long-term fate of the universe, contributions span the last decade to the research of today.

Although memory is subjective and colored by experience, a team of researchers, led by Weishun Zhong, Eric and Wendy Schmidt Member in Biology in the School of Natural Sciences, and Misha Tsodyks, C. V. Starr Professor in the School, have discovered that our brains share a universal mathematical structure for memory organization. Their findings bridge the disciplines of physics and neuroscience, revealing potential applications ranging from AI to memory disorder treatment.

Scholars from the School of Natural Sciences are leading investigations into the sources of gravitational wave signals, the unexpectedly high frequency of detections, and—extending beyond these direct questions—establishing innovative and unexpected connections between gravitational wave research and particle collider physics. These contributions are redefining our understanding of the field.

Can AI Teach Science?

Motivated by the growing interest in using artificial intelligence for teaching purposes, IAS scholars from the Schools of Mathematics and Natural Sciences have conducted an innovative study to assess the correctness and helpfulness of large language models in STEM education. Their research yielded surprising results, including highlighting the importance of training models on conversations rather than textbooks.

Organization, Communication, and Decision

In the cognitive revolution, psychologists, recognizing that developments in information processing had potential for studying the human mind, sought for the first time to apply new ideas in early artificial intelligence, computer science, and neuroscience to psychology. The Institute, as the home of one of the first modern computers, was uniquely poised to serve as a hub for this nascent field of study.