Quantum Physics Titans Win Breakthrough Prize

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September 22, 2022

Dear Reader, The Breakthrough Prizes, the most lucrative awards in science, were announced today. Our lead story details the history behind this year's physics prize winners, four scientists who pioneered the theoretical work that underpins major investments in quantum computing and communications. We also have coverage of the latest delays on NASA's Artemis I moonshot, new space-junk regulations from the FCC, beautiful images from JWST, an imminent impact with an asteroid by the DART spacecraft and the Perseverance rover's freshest finds on Mars.

Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space & Physics @LeeBillings

Quantum Physics Quantum Physics Titans Win Breakthrough Prize This year's Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics honors some of the pioneers of quantum information science By Daniel Garisto

Space Exploration NASA's Artemis Delays Fuel Controversy over Rocket Design The first test flight of the space agency's Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft is plagued by delays decades in the making By Nadia Drake

Space Exploration The FCC Is Finally Taking Space Junk Seriously A new potential rule from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission would set a five-year deadline for defunct satellites to be removed from space By Jonathan O'Callaghan

Sponsor Content Provided by Yale University Press Explore How Humans Interact with the Material World In Force, notable engineer and historian Henry Petroski demonstrates the daily interactions that make force a unifying principle that pervades our lives.

Planetary Science NASA's Asteroid-Crashing DART Mission Is Ready for Impact The DART mission to redirect an asteroid could be just the beginning of a robust planetary-defense program By Keith Cooper,SPACE.com

Extraterrestrial Life Perseverance Mars Rover Makes 'Fantastic' Find in Search for Past Life NASA's Perseverance rover has collected four rock samples from an ancient river delta where organisms might have thrived By Alexandra Witze,Nature magazine

Astronomy JWST's First Exoplanet Images Forecast a Bright Future The James Webb Space Telescope's snapshots of a giant world orbiting another star show that the observatory is performing even better than expected and that its best exoplanet images are yet to come By Daniel Leonard

Astronomy Sparkly Image of Neptune's Rings Comes into View from JWST See a stunning new view of Neptune's rings and oddball moon Triton from the James Webb Space Telescope By Jeanna Bryner

Engineering The First Lady of Engineering: Lost Women of Science Podcast, Season 3, Episode 1 Yvonne Y. Clark, known as Y.Y. throughout her career, had a lifetime of groundbreaking achievements as a Black female mechanical engineer. The third season of the Lost Women of Science podcast begins at the start of her story, during her unconventional childhood in the segregated South By Katie Hafner,Carol Sutton Lewis,The Lost Women of Science Initiative

Astrophysics Einstein's Greatest Theory Just Passed Its Most Rigorous Test Yet The MICROSCOPE mission tested the weak equivalence principle with free-falling objects in a satellite By Robert Lea,SPACE.com

Pollution The Sky Needs Its 'Silent Spring' Moment A surge of new research underscores the growing global problem of light pollution—as well as the urgent need for public awareness and action By Joshua Sokol

Particle Physics See the Facility That Tests whether Nuclear Weapons Work Gargantuan lasers induce a fusion reaction to test the U.S. nuclear stockpile By Adam Mann,Alastair Philip Wiper

Genetics Quantum Tunneling Makes DNA More Unstable The freaky physics phenomenon of quantum tunneling may mutate genes By Lars Fischer,Gary Stix

Neurology How Squishy Math Is Revealing Doughnuts in the Brain Topology, sometimes called rubber sheet geometry, is finding patterns in the brain, drugs and evolution By Kelsey Houston-Edwards

FROM THE STORE Special Editions Volume 31, Issue 4s

QUOTE OF THE DAY "I am not too surprised. One of the reasons it's not surprising is because decisions they made more than a decade ago locked them into this design that really was not focused on operability." Lori Garver, former NASA deputy administrator, on recurring launch delays for the agency's inaugural flight of its giant SLS moon rocket

FROM THE ARCHIVE The Quantum Internet Is Emerging, One Experiment at a Time Breakthrough demonstrations using defective diamonds, high-flying drones, laser-bathed crystals and other exotica suggest practical, unhackable quantum networks are within reach By Anil Ananthaswamy | June 2019

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