The Evolving Quest for a Grand Unified Theory of Mathematics

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March 24, 2022

Dear Reader, This week's top story takes us far from our everyday troubles and deep into more fundamental frontiers. Specifically, into the Langlands program, an incredibly influential collection of conjectures from the mathematician Robert Langlands that has inspired generations of researchers to seek deeper linkages between number theory and geometry that could impact physics and other scientific disciplines. Elsewhere, we have stories on SpaceX's Starlink internet service as a possible panacea—or PR stunt—in times of global crisis, new insights into planet formation from worlds beyond our solar system, a milestone image from the James Webb Space Telescope and much more.

Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space & Physics @LeeBillings

Mathematics The Evolving Quest for a Grand Unified Theory of Mathematics More than 50 years after the seeds of a vast collection of mathematical ideas called the Langlands program began to sprout, surprising new findings are emerging By Rachel Crowell

Natural Disasters Starlink Offers Internet Access in Times of Crisis, but Is It Just a PR Stunt? There are no individual saviors for Tonga's Internet infrastructure By Robin George Andrews

Astronomy Cosmic Collisions Yield Clues about Exoplanet Formation Low levels of bombardment reveal that the TRAPPIST-1 system probably grew quickly By Sean Raymond

Astrophysics A Stunning Image Shows Stars Aligned for the James Webb Space Telescope With its mirrors now focused, the observatory's science instruments are now being readied for work By Elizabeth Howell,SPACE.com

Space Exploration Mars Helicopter Ingenuity Soars on 22nd Red Planet Flight The aircraft's sorties are helping NASA's Perseverance rover scout a path into an ancient Martian river delta By Mike Wall,SPACE.com

Basic Chemistry See Crystals Form a Mesmerizing World of Microscopic Landscapes A pandemic micrography project By Joanna Thompson

Particle Physics Why Some Fluids Flow Slower when Pushed Harder A transparent rock experiment shows how stretchy molecules kick up eddies By Rachel Berkowitz

Engineering Russia's New Nuclear Missiles Squeeze Response Time As treaties end, Russia focuses on hypersonic weapons that could "tighten the noose" on current U.S. defenses By Matthew Gault

Defense How Many Nuclear Weapons Exist, and Who Has Them? Nuclear states admit to owning about 13,000 warheads, but the real number could be higher By Joe Phelan,LiveScience

FROM THE STORE Scientific American Volume 326, Issue 4

QUOTE OF THE DAY "Some of the most fascinating work that will come out of the next few decades is seeing consequences and manifestations of Langlands within parts of science where the interaction with this kind of pure mathematics may have been marginal up until now." Steven Rayan, mathematician at the University of Saskatchewan

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