A new book covering the history of scientific inquiry invites us to marvel at the elegance of experimentation. Some philosophers have argued that “beauty” in science stands as a proxy for truth. Many ...

Last week over in Twitter-land, Philip Ball asked an interesting question: I’ve written a fair bit about historical science, and read more than I’ve written, so this question stuck with me, and seems ...

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but for the science writer Philip Ball it emerges from within. In “Beautiful Experiments: An Illustrated History of Experimental Science” Mr. Ball argues that ...

This list was ostensibly the creation of a New York philosophy professor who recently asked physicists to name the most beautiful scientific experiments ever conducted. Their nominations, which appear ...

Watch simple materials turn into oddly satisfying transformations—Wood Mood pulls off experiments where the results get weirder (and more beautiful) each time. ‘I live in one of world’s prettiest ...

The Matter of Everything tells the history of physics through experiments. Any book about the history of science for a general audience will, of necessity, be something of a distortion. The question ...

Katie has a PhD in maths, specializing in the intersection of dynamical systems and number theory. She reports on topics from maths and history to society and animals. Katie has a PhD in maths, ...

WHILE today’s particle colliders and genome projects cost millions, and dozens of names appear on scientific papers, George Johnson gazes back to the ideal of earlier centuries: a gentleman alone in ...

With a blacked-out studio setup and iPhones mounted to what looks like selfie sticks, they’ve documented experiments that showcase visual reactions. It’s all on display here. The gear is one thing, ...