Why NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Matters So Much

The project could rewrite the history of the cosmos and reshape humanity's position within it. But first, a lot of things have to work just right.

Math and Science News from Quanta Magazine View this email in your browser ASTROPHYSICS | ALL TOPICS   The Webb Space Telescope Will Rewrite Cosmic History. If It Works. By NATALIE WOLCHOVER The James Webb Space Telescope, a $10 billion project decades in the making, has been designed to find answers to the core questions that have animated astronomers over the past half century. It is one of the most ambitious engineering projects ever attempted. But for it to achieve its potential — nothing less than to rewrite the history of the cosmos and reshape humanity's position within it — a lot of things have to work just right. Read the article QUANTUM PHYSICS   Quantum Simulators Create a Totally New Phase of Matter By CHARLIE WOOD One of the first goals of quantum computing has been to recreate bizarre quantum systems that can't be studied in an ordinary computer. A dark-horse quantum simulator has now done just that. Read the blog   QUANTIZED COLUMNS   Will We Ever Get Rid of COVID-19? By TARA C. SMITH No matter how much we'd like to eradicate SARS-CoV-2, it may be better to settle for other forms of control. Read the column Related: The Animal Origins of Coronavirus and Flu by Tara C. Smith (2020) BIODIVERSITY   Wildfires of Varying Intensity Can Be Good for Biodiversity By CARRIE ARNOLD The spate of furious wildfires around the world during the past decade has revealed to ecologists how much biodiversity and "pyrodiversity" go hand in hand. Read the article Related:  Soil's Microbial Market Shows the Ruthless Side of Forests by Gabriel Popkin (2019) VIDEO   How the Webb Telescope Will Reshape Our Place in the Universe Video by EMILY BUDER NASA's newest space telescope is the most powerful telescope in the history of humanity, and one of the most ambitious engineering projects ever attempted.  Watch the video Related Video: Exoplanets: The Astronomer Looking into Alien Worlds on the Quanta YouTube Channel Around the Web All Eyes on Omicron The new SARS-CoV-2 variant, omicron, has many mutations. As Ewen Callaway reports for Nature, scientists are racing to understand what those mutations imply about the variant virus's transmissibility and the severity of its infections, as well as about the efficacy of vaccines. Thankfully, work is progressing rapidly, in part because of South Africa's large genome monitoring effort. In June, Puja Changoiwala reported for Quanta about the necessity of genomic surveillance for curbing the pandemic. The New Neutrino Factory In a first, the Forward Search (FASER) experiment at the LHC has detected signs of neutrinos produced by a particle collider, Chelsea Gohd reports for Space.com. The new ability to detect and study neutrinos produced by the LHC may help scientists finally understand these strange subatomic particles. In October, Thomas Lewton wrote for Quanta about the confounding neutrino mysteries yet to be solved. Follow Quanta Simons Foundation 160 5th Avenue, 7th Floor New York, NY 10010 Unsubscribe | About Quanta Privacy Policy | Terms | Contact Us   Copyright © 2021 Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent division of the Simons Foundation