Bringing together the very best & most interesting science stories showing up in Quanta Magazine within the last five years, Alice and Bob Meet up with the Wall of Fire reports on some of the greatest scientific minds as they test the restricts of human knowledge. It communicates science by taking it significantly, wrestling with challenging concepts, and clearly explaining them in a manner that speaks to your innate curiosity about our world and ourselves.

In the title story, Alice and Bob-beloved characters of varied about Alice and Bob Meet up with the Wall of Fire: The Biggest Ideas in Science from Quanta thought tests in physics-grapple with gravitational forces, possible spaghettification, and a massive wall of fire as Alice jumps into a black hole. Another story considers if the universe is impossible, in light of experimental results at the Huge Hadron Collider. We find out about quantum reality and the secret of quantum entanglement; explore the foundation of time’s arrow; and see a eureka minute when a quantum physicist exclaims: ‘Finally, we can realize why a cup of coffee equilibrates in a room.’ We reflect on humans’ tremendous skulls and the mind Growth; consider the evolutionary benefits of loneliness; peel back again the levels of the newest artificial-intelligence algorithms. These tales from Quanta give us a front-row chair to scientific breakthrough.