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Physics An Abecedary Of Scientific Serendipity
Sheldon Lee Glashow
[long_description] The word serendipity, the art of stumbling on fortunate discoveries while searching for something else, was coined by Horace Walpole in 1754. In an alphabetical tour running from the first aniline dye to the science of fermentation, Nobel laureate Sheldon Lee Glashow recounts twenty-six episodes in which accident and a prepared mind reshaped science, among them Botox, dynamite, gamma-ray bursts, LSD, the microwave oven, pulsars, radioactivity and Viagra.
Mathematics A Truncated Manuscript
Pierre Schapira
[short_description] In the mid-1980s, an enigmatic document began circulating in French mathematical circles. Pierre Schapira casts a critical eye over Alexander Grothendieck's Récoltes et Semailles, now published officially for the first time.
Archaeology + MORE The Year in Review
The Editors
[short_description] As the end of the year approaches, we are pleased to mark the relaunch of Inference with a new season of essays, insights, and intellectual exchange. Inference is now accepting submissions from authors worldwide.
On the War in Ukraine
The Editors
Thousands of Russian scientists and science writers have signed an open letter to Russian president Vladimir Putin. They strongly protest the war Putin has launched against Ukraine. By so doing, these scientists and journalists have put themselves at great risk.

Recent Articles

On the Laser-Fusion Milestone
Daniel Jassby
[long_description] On December 5, 2022, the National Ignition Facility recorded the first energy gain in fusion history. Daniel Jassby follows up on his recent essay to explain that, while laudable, these results have done little to advance fusion energy’s distant future, since the various technologies necessary to support such a future do not yet exist.
The Origins of Python
Lambert Meertens
[long_description] Python is arguably the most popular programming language worldwide. Since its debut in 1991, Python’s accessibility and rich functionality has helped it gather a huge userbase. Its design was influenced by creator Guido van Rossum’s involvement with an earlier language, ABC. Lambert Meertens, one of ABC’s developers, recounts Python’s origins and how ABC’s design philosophy shaped its successor.
The Scent of Flavor
Linda Bartoshuk
[long_description] Had Aristotle recognized flavor as a sensation distinct from taste, he might have paid attention to how taste, flavor, and smell really work together. It was, in fact, only in the nineteenth century that this distinction was realized. Linda Bartoshuk retraces the history of our understanding of flavor, and recounts tales from her life’s work researching the chemical senses of taste and smell.
View all articles

Letters to the Editors

Mechanical Thinking
Sylvia Berryman
reply by Mike Edmunds
[short_description] Could a single implement, such as the Antikythera mechanism, change the understanding of the cosmos? Sylvia Berryman is wary of viewing mechanistic pictures as unique keys to historical worldviews.
Archaeology and Armageddon
Erin Hall
[short_description] In the interwar period, a team from the University of Chicago oversaw an archaeological dig in Megiddo, modern day Israel. The dig’s findings, and shortcomings, proved foundational for archaeology.
A Riddling Mirror of Nature
Paul Keyser
reply by Mike Edmunds
[short_description] When studying the origins and nature of the Antikythera mechanism, Paul Keyser cautions scholars to be mindful not to “retroject things seen or deduced from one era back into times well prior.”
Translating Theory into Technology
Paul Cartledge
reply by Mike Edmunds
[short_description] Paul Cartledge describes how the discovery of the Antikythera mechanism has challenged long-held views about the ability of Greek scholars in antiquity to translate theory into technology.
The First Computer
Kyriakos Efstathiou
reply by Mike Edmunds
[short_description] Was the Antikythera mechanism the first computer in world history? Kyriakos Efstathiou makes the case for the predictive powers of the device, which have now been tested in detail.
Neither Denouncing nor Celebrating
Richard Noakes
reply by David Kordahl
[short_description] Is scientific advancement entrapped by its historical context, or could history be the driving force behind such progress? Richard Noakes and David Kordahl discuss.
View letters archive

From the Archives
State of the Union
Michael Fumento
[long_description] Is fusion really the energy of the future? Michael Fumento explores some of the many false starts in the development of controlled nuclear fusion and considers its current prospects, including inertial and magnetic confinement, inertial electrostatic confinement, and compact reactors.
The Fourth State of Water
Marc Henry
[short_description] What is water that is not ice, liquid, or vapor? Marc Henry explains the unfolding discovery of water’s elusive fourth state, which could bring a revolution for biology and medicine.
From Conception to Kamchatka
Joshua Socolar
[short_description] In The Second Kind of Impossible, Paul Steinhardt tells the story of his first encounters with quasicrystals and his subsequent decades-long search for a naturally formed example.
Divine Medicine
George Scialabba
[short_description] In reviewing A Natural History of Beer by Rob DeSalle & Ian Tattersall, George Scialabba summarizes beer’s story, including its major historical moments, the science of its components, and its future.
The Concept of Self
Neeraja Sankaran
[short_description] In 1960, Macfarlane Burnet became Australia’s second winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine. Neeraja Sankaran examines his wide body of work and enduring significance, both at home and abroad.
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