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Time in a block universe

Fundamental physics says time is symmetric - so why does time move forwards for us in a block universe?
Article

Why not block time?

Is time real? Are we just puppets living out a future already written? Marina Cortês explains why she thinks time is fundamental and that we don't live in a block universe.
Article

The future is time

Marina Cortês is one of a growing number of physicists who believe time is fundamental. We ask her about the alternatives theories to the block universe, where time comes first.
Collection

Stuff happens: Time in a block universe

Physics tells us that we live in a block universe, containing all of the past and all of the future. What does this perspective mean for our understanding of time, events, and free will?
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Introducing Andrew Wiles

In these two short videos the legendary Andrew Wiles talks about what it was like to prove Fermat's Last Theorem, and what it feels like to do maths.

Image © Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation / Flemming­ – 2016

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Photo of Eddington

Time to go retro

A model of backward causation in which the future affects the past could help unite quantum mechanics and general relativity – and satisfy a challenge thrown down almost a century ago by Arthur Eddington.

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Mathematical moments: Keith Mansfield

Keith Mansfield tells us how being able to do maths turns you into a superhero, helps you work out why we haven't yet been contacted by aliens, and remembers his favourite mathematical moment.