Ideas

Jonah Kudler-Flam, Marvin L. Goldberger Member in the Institute for Advanced Study’s School of Natural Sciences (2022–26), provides insight into his current research on the Hartle–Hawking state, exploring how quantum physics explains our universe and humanity’s place within its many systems.

Giovanni Maria Tomaselli, Member in the Institute for Advanced Study's School of Natural Sciences (2024–27), introduces the enigmatic substance of dark matter, which forms the focus of his current research and of lively discussions during Astro Coffee meetings.

Chris Hamilton, John N. Bahcall Fellow in the School of Natural Sciences (2021–26), describes how the Institute’s intense academic environment has helped him focus and accelerate his research, and the benefits of receiving rapid feedback from colleagues like Professor Emeritus Scott Tremaine.

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.

Giovanni Maria Tomaselli, Member in the School of Natural Sciences, delves into the cosmic mystery of dark matter—the invisible substance that comprises 85 percent of the universe. He introduces three of the main candidates for dark matter's composition and discusses his own innovative insights into how such matter might interact with binary black hole pairs.

Why do collisionless plasmas like the solar wind, a constant stream of charged particles that flows away from the Sun, exhibit a universal "non-thermal tail"? Uddipan Banik, Member in the School of Natural Sciences, has proposed a fundamental, first-principles explanation for this phenomenon.

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.

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.

Building on analogs with plasma physics, John N. Bahcall Fellow Chris Hamilton (2021–26), visiting graduate student Shaunak Modak (2023–26), and Professor Emeritus Scott Tremaine have developed a new theoretical framework for understanding galactic disks. 

Sihao Cheng, Martin A. and Helen Chooljian Member in the Institute for Advanced Study’s School of Natural Sciences (2022–25), describes how he is mining a previously overlooked dataset in his ongoing search for a possible ninth planet in our solar system.