interview
Kenneth Libbrecht interview: A grand unified theory of snowflakes
Courtesy of Kenneth Libbrecht SNOWFALL in Pasadena, California, is so rare, it’s almost unheard of. Except, that is, at the California Institute of Technology, where Kenneth Libbrecht can conjure it up using the world’s most sophisticated snowflake-making equipment. As a physicist, Libbrecht has tackled some fairly epic questions, like the nature of gravitational waves and…
Josh Bongard interview: The roboticist who wants to bring AI into contact with the real world
WHO’S in charge, your brain or your body? The answer may seem obvious, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest that our physiology has dramatically affected the way we think. This idea of embodied cognition could hold important lessons for those trying to build genuinely intelligent machines – artificial intelligences that learn and think and can generalise their knowledge to all manner of tasks,…
Erland Cooper interview: The composer who melts hearts with icy music
Erland Cooper next to his ice sculpture, Glacier Alex Kozobolis I FIRST met musician, composer and artist Erland Cooper outside London’s Barbican Centre in late spring. He had been standing for 12 hours next to his 2.4-metre-high ice sculpture, Glacier. This thawing, crystalline monolith reflected the climate change themes and fragile beauty of his fourth-and-latest album, Folded Landscapes….