Watch Now: Brian Greene on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Brian Greene joined Stephen Colbert on The Late Show to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the double-slit experiment with a lesson on quantum physics (plus some actual levitation!)

The 2017 World Science Festival unleashed mind-blowing moments like we’ve never seen before. More than 628,000 people attended over 70 events that spanned six days and all five boroughs in New York City. Luminaries from the arts and sciences opened the Festival with a star-studded celebration of the cosmos. Over 200 participants tackled some of science’s toughest questions through main stage discussions and intimate salons. Girls had the chance to tour women-run labs across New York City, while pioneering women in science led conversations about the future of space exploration and the preservation of our oceans. Science in the Square advanced the climate change conversation at the crossroads of the world: Times Square. Students and working biologists counted fish throughout the New York waterways. Astronauts joined families in Brooklyn Bridge Park to reach beyond our known universe. And thousands watched live programs online and added to the conversation, thanks in part to more than fifty WSF Live partners.

Join us for an exploration of groundbreaking discoveries, encounters with the trailblazing scientists and thinkers who are changing the world, and youth & family events that will inspire the next generation of leaders.

Perennial favorites return, including our main stage Big Ideas programs, intimate Salons, the Flame Challenge, Cool Jobs, and free outdoor events that transport science from the lab to NYC’s parks and waterways. This year, we’ll also celebrate the achievements of Women in Science, and explore the impact of the award-winning teachers on the future of scientific discovery.

In a year that began with an inspiring reminder that human ingenuity, persistence, and collaboration makes it possible to do things like successfully detect gravitational waves, the past five days at the World Science Festival offered countless moments to celebrate and engage with where science is capable of taking us next.

Five fascinating days of full science celebration culminate on Sunday with a variety of fun events tailored for the next generation of scientists. Street Science turns the Kimmel Center into a larger-than-life laboratory full of experiments and demonstrations primed for hands-on learning. Cool Jobs will showcase just how fun a day job can be when you get to wake up every morning and think about how to build 3D homes on Mars. Then, Alan Alda will reveal the winners of the annual Flame Challenge, which tasks accomplished experts with answering a question in terms an 11-year old can understand. This year contestants wrestled with this question: What is sound?