Early in “3 Body Problem,” the new Netflix adaptation of Liu Cixin’s acclaimed science-fiction trilogy, intelligent life from another corner of the universe decides that a spectacle is required to get humanity’s attention. On a cloudless night, the stars brighten, then flicker on and off, as if a kid were playing with a light switch, transmitting a series of numbers. Two physicists—one high and thus mesmerized, the other terrified— watch the phenomenon from a Gothic courtyard in Oxford, England. The next day, the stoner, Saul Durand (Jovan Adepo), chalks the experience up to an elaborate hoax; the rest of the world also saw the stars twinkle in code, but the celestial blinks went undetected by Earth’s most powerful telescopes. The otherworldly signal may have been a message just for Saul’s companion, a nanomaterials researcher named Auggie Salazar (Eiza González) who’s had a glowing countdown emblazoned across her field of vision for days. The digits in the sky match the ones she now sees every time she opens her eyes.
This story is from the March 25, 2024 edition of The New Yorker.
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This story is from the March 25, 2024 edition of The New Yorker.
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LET'S MAKE A DEAL
\"Death Becomes Her\" and \"Burnout Paradise.\"
ANTI HEROES
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FELLOW-TRAVELLERS
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NOW YOU SEE ME
John Singer Sargent's strange, slippery portraits of an art dealer's family.
PARIS FRIEND - SHUANG XUETAO
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Is Lake Tahoe's bear boom getting out of hand?
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Robots learn to use their hands.
WITHHOLDING SEX FROM MY WIFE
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Old age, reborn.
