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. Physics

    Key to free will may be stripping reality naked

    If reality emerges from an unseen foundation, human free will could influence the future.

  2. Quantum Physics

    Finding a quantum way to make free will possible

    Maybe quantum influences from the Big Bang make humans unpredictable, permitting the possibility of free will.

  3. Quantum Physics

    Einstein was wrong about spooky quantum entanglement

    Einstein’s biggest blunder wasn’t about vacuum energy in space, but in confusing people about quantum entanglement.

  4. Math

    There’s something suspicious about using statistics to test statistics

    The use of statistics to validate medical studies suffers from flaws of faulty assumptions.

  5. Neuroscience

    Cataloging the connections

    Though a complete map of the brain’s connections is many years away, the mathematical theory of networks can help fill in some of the blank spots.

  6. Math

    To make science better, watch out for statistical flaws

    Study denying that most medical research papers are wrong may turn out to be wrong.

  7. Quantum Physics

    Tom’s Top 10 interpretations of quantum mechanics

    Quantum mechanics has given birth to dozens of interpretations, which themselves need interpretations.

  8. Physics

    Quarks celebrate their 50th anniversary

    In a 1997 interview with Context blogger Tom Siegfried, Murray Gell-Mann discussed the origin of the idea for the subatomic particles that he named quarks.

  9. Quantum Physics

    Gell-Mann, Hartle spin a quantum narrative about reality

    The “consistent histories” approach to quantum physics removes any role for people in creating “quasiclassical” reality.

  10. Quantum Physics

    ‘QBists’ tackle quantum problems by adding a subjective aspect to science

    Advocates of a program called “Quantum Bayesianism” take a subjective approach to resolving the paradoxes of quantum physics.

  11. Physics

    Google search fails to find any sign of time travelers

    A search of the Internet for signs of time travelers from the future fares no better than the party hosted by Stephen Hawking that nobody attended.

  12. Physics

    Tom’s top 10 time travel movies

    The lack of a credible scientific basis doesn’t stop movie makers from making films about time travel.