As given by Britain’s brilliant, opinionated Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, the seven fundamental constants of Nature are: e, the charge of an electron; m, the mass of an electron (at rest); M, the ...

This persnickety number determines the strength of magnetic fields. It figures in everything from motors and generators to audio speakers. Oh, and without it we’d live in eternal darkness.

When quantum electrodynamics, the quantum field theory of electrons and photons, was being developed after World War II, one of the major challenges for theorists was calculating a value for the Lamb ...