Every generation benefits from the insights and discoveries of the generations who came before. “If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants,” wrote Isaac Newton. In a special series, the World Science Festival invites audiences to stand on the shoulders of modern-day giants.

Professor Witten is a leading light of superstring theory and the only physicist to have won the vaunted Fields Medal, mathematics’ highest honor. Known for advancing a number of novel approaches in mathematics and physics, Witten opened up new vistas in 1995 when he unified five seemingly competing superstring theories into M-theory, which seeks to unify Einstein’s general theory of relativity with quantum mechanics.

Ellen Stofan is the NASA chief scientist, serving as principal advisor on the agency’s science programs. Prior to her appointment, Stofan was vice president of Proxemy Research and an honorary …

Forget what you think you know about dark matter. After a 30-year search for a single, as yet unidentified, species of dark matter particle that would make up some 25% of the mass of the universe, physicists are starting to consider novel explanations.

In this live discussion and Q & A, Brian Greene addresses a wide range of fascinating questions, taken directly from the live chat, and covering a variety of topics, from …

Einstein’s “spooky action” describes quantum particles entangled across space, but can such spookiness entangle particles across time? A conversation spanning the origins of quantum mechanics through its leading-edge implications for …