Who is researching and shaping science is more crucial than ever

NOW we are halfway through 2023, I can confess to something that astute readers may have already noticed: I made it my mission to return to basic and foundational questions in physics this year. Some of this was motivated by teaching a quantum mechanics course for the first time earlier this year. But it was also possibly due to the theoretical physicist’s version of a midlife crisis. As I revealed last month in my Substack newsletter, I have been formally awarded tenure and will be promoted to associate professor as of August. I am officially mid-career.

Since New Scientist…