Adam Frank
Adam Frank was a contributor to the NPR blog 13.7: Cosmos & Culture. A professor at the University of Rochester, Frank is a theoretical/computational astrophysicist and currently heads a research group developing supercomputer code to study the formation and death of stars. Frank's research has also explored the evolution of newly born planets and the structure of clouds in the interstellar medium. Recently, he has begun work in the fields of astrobiology and network theory/data science. Frank also holds a joint appointment at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, a Department of Energy fusion lab.
Frank is the author of two books: The Constant Fire, Beyond the Science vs. Religion Debate (University of California Press, 2010), which was one of SEED magazine's "Best Picks of The Year," and About Time, Cosmology and Culture at the Twilight of the Big Bang (Free Press, 2011). He has contributed to The New York Times and magazines such as Discover, Scientific American and Tricycle.
Frank's work has also appeared in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009. In 1999 he was awarded an American Astronomical Society prize for his science writing.
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Beyond the fights and the chases in Ramez Naam's Nexus trilogy, it is an opportunity to consider how technology might move some humans beyond humanity, says astrophysicist Adam Frank. -
It's possible that string theory or the multiverse may find strong links with data, but a recent book provides a view of what a truly different philosophical approach would look like, says Adam Frank. -
In 13.7 blogger Alva Noë's latest book, he shows that in art, it's our most intimate, lived experience and us as individual world-builders that comes into view, says commentator Adam Frank. -
Some of the five mass extinctions Earth experienced in the past were driven by climate changes. Future Earth will be just fine. It's us humans we need to worry about, says astrophysicist Adam Frank. -
Through climate science, we learned to read entire worlds — and no one can take that achievement from us: We are greater for what we have built with this knowledge, says astrophysicist Adam Frank. -
A new novel doesn't take the easy way out but, instead, asks questions about the mutations of human institutions under the pressure of global warming, says commentator Adam Frank. -
The power of science and pervasiveness of technology puts scientists in a position of unique responsibility that can make political activism very slippery, says commentator Adam Frank. -
Life as we know it is being threatened by everything from climate change to resource depletion. Commentator Adam Frank looks back at 1177 B.C. — and what we might learn from peoples past. -
Does science have limits? Commentator Adam Frank reviews Marcelo Gleiser's eye-opening new book exploring this very question. It appears that we are forever headed into the dark. -
A lot can happen in a millisecond, if you have the right tools. Commentator Adam Frank says the rise of high-frequency financial trading marks the invention of a new time logic for humanity.
