Tom Siegfried

Tom Siegfried

Contributing Correspondent

Tom Siegfried is a contributing correspondent. He was editor in chief of Science News from 2007 to 2012, and he was the managing editor from 2014 to 2017. He is the author of the blog Context. In addition to Science News, his work has appeared in Science, Nature, Astronomy, New Scientist and Smithsonian. Previously he was the science editor of The Dallas Morning News. He is the author of four books: The Bit and the Pendulum (Wiley, 2000); Strange Matters (National Academy of Sciences’ Joseph Henry Press, 2002);  A Beautiful Math (2006, Joseph Henry Press); and The Number of the Heavens (Harvard University Press, 2019). Tom was born in Lakewood, Ohio, and grew up in nearby Avon. He earned an undergraduate degree from Texas Christian University with majors in journalism, chemistry and history, and has a master of arts with a major in journalism and a minor in physics from the University of Texas at Austin. His awards include the American Geophysical Union's Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism, the Science-in Society award from the National Association of Science Writers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science-Westinghouse Award, the American Chemical Society’s James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public, and the American Institute of Physics Science Communication Award.

All Stories by Tom Siegfried

  1. Science & Society

    There’s a new way to quantify structure and complexity

    A new way to measure structure and complexity can help explain how information sharing among the parts of a system is related to its behaviors on different scales.

  2. Quantum Physics

    New analysis rescues quantum wave-particle duality

    An experiment that supposedly contradicted the wave-particle duality principle of quantum physics has been reanalyzed, revealing a flaw.

  3. Quantum Physics

    Holography entangles quantum physics with gravity

    Spacetime geometry, and therefore gravity, emerges from quantum entanglement, analyses using tensor networks show.

  4. Quantum Physics

    Tensor networks get entangled with quantum gravity

    Using tensors to describe quantum entanglement shows promise as a way to understand gravity.

  5. Tech

    To have a sound mind, a brain needs a body

    Replicating human intelligence in robots requires the right materials for brain-body-environment interactions.

  6. Science & Society

    ‘Enlightening Symbols’ shows how math’s language arose

    From numerals to infinity, symbols have advanced mathematical thinking.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Evidence-based medicine actually isn’t

    Demands for evidence-based medicine confront the contradiction that much of the evidence is worthless or skewed.

  8. Science & Society

    Top 10 mathematical innovations

    Nine mathematical innovations that rank right up there with logarithms.

  9. Science & Society

    Quantum connection could revitalize superstrings

    Status of superstrings could be elevated by their ability to explain the mysterious rules of quantum mechanics.

  10. Science & Society

    Book delves into Scientific Revolution way beyond Galileo

    ‘Voyaging in Strange Seas’ shows that modern science was built not just by giants but by hundreds who explored all realms of science.

  11. Science & Society

    Logarithms celebrate their 400th birthday

    Four centuries ago, John Napier provided human calculators the time-saving gift of logarithms.

  12. Quantum Physics

    You shouldn’t try to pigeonhole quantum physics

    A quantum analysis shows a way to violate math’s pigeonhole principle, by allowing three particles in two boxes with no two in the same box.