Science

We now have all the tools to do it. Computers are a billion times more powerful, the data is vastly better, our understanding of psychology is vastly better – we have all the elements we need now to do these things and to do them well.

Complexity scientist & founding director of Santa Fe Institute's Complexity Economics program

A complex system is one where the properties of the building blocks, when they interact, can create phenomena that are very different from the building blocks themselves. You take a neuron, which is a cell – you put an electrochemical signal in, electrochemical signal comes out – but somehow you hook 80 billion of them together and you get a brain.

Complexity scientist & founding director of Santa Fe Institute's Complexity Economics program

I often joke that disproving quantum computing sceptics is the primary application of a quantum computer, with everything else being a bonus.

Theoretical computer scientist specializing in quantum computing and computational complexity

Quantum computing is thus not just a technological pursuit, but a deeply philosophical one, aiming to probe the very foundations of our world.

Theoretical computer scientist specializing in quantum computing and computational complexity

Quantum computing can be seen as a monumental effort to fully confront this exponential scaling that lies at the heart of quantum mechanics. By building and testing quantum computers, we are conducting an experiment that should either indisputably confirm this exponential nature, or overturn a century of established quantum theory.

Theoretical computer scientist specializing in quantum computing and computational complexity

This exponential scaling reveals the immense complexity lurking beneath the surface of reality. Taking full computational advantage of these quantum laws is the essence of quantum computing.

Theoretical computer scientist specializing in quantum computing and computational complexity

The surprising consequence is that amplitudes can interfere with each other. If an event can happen in two different ways, one with a positive amplitude and one with a negative amplitude, the contributions can cancel out, leading to zero probability of the event occurring. Decreasing the number of paths can paradoxically increase the likelihood of an outcome.

Theoretical computer scientist specializing in quantum computing and computational complexity

From cell to civilisation took about 4 billion years, which is a long time—a third of the age of the universe. If it takes billions of years to produce complex living things at our level, maybe there aren't many places that could sustain an unbroken chain of life for that long.

Theoretical Physicist & TV Science Communicator

Most astronomers are surprised, but biologists look at the history of life on Earth. Many biologists I speak to would say it's almost incomprehensible that something as complex as us has even appeared at all—we might just be very lucky.

Theoretical Physicist & TV Science Communicator

If there are no other complex biological systems in a galaxy like the Milky Way, then there's no meaning in that galaxy at all—so the galaxy is meaningless if there are no complex biological systems in it. We bring meaning to it.

Theoretical Physicist & TV Science Communicator

Whatever you think it is, meaning self-evidently exists, because the universe means something to each of us. But I would argue that whatever it is, it's an emergent property. So it exists here on Earth because there are complex biological systems. Without those complex biological systems, it doesn't exist. There is no meaning.

Theoretical Physicist & TV Science Communicator

If we treat the mind and body as one unit, then wherever we put the mind, we necessarily put the body—and that opens up enormous possibilities for control.

Harvard psychologist & researcher in mindfulness and the psychology of possibility

Our research over the past 45+ years shows that when you're actively noticing, your neurons are firing, and that's literally and figuratively enlivening. And what do we do when we're having fun? We notice, we engage. So mindfulness is not just beneficial—it's enjoyable.

Harvard psychologist & researcher in mindfulness and the psychology of possibility

We can actually retrain our brains to think about and handle conflict differently. Some of this comes down to self-awareness, but also to taking intentional pauses that help us recognise what we're feeling. There's a lot of research on affective labeling—the act of naming our emotions and fears—which helps reduce what's called limbic irritability.

Director of Stanford Law School's Negotiation and Mediation program

Measuring wellbeing solves two big problems: it tells us what truly matters (not just income or health metrics), and it lets us compare different types of charities—poverty relief, education, the arts—by how much happiness they generate. We move from vibes‑based giving to data‑driven giving.

There's no way electrical signals alone can produce the sensation of taste. That's the hard problem of consciousness: qualia—the sensations and feelings through which we know the world and ourselves—bear no resemblance to electrical impulses, and physics offers no explanation for how one could give rise to the other.

Co-Inventor of the Microprocessor & Founder of Zilog