NYT Asks 100 Scientists for Science's Biggest Open Questions; Gopnik's 'Where Do New Concepts Come From' Makes the List
AlisonGopnik · x · 2026-10-06
The New York Times asked 100 scientists — from Harvard evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman to Nobel laureates — "What is a big unanswered question in your field?" and compiled the responses into a list of 100 open questions spanning everything from how ants cooperate to cosmology.
Developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik's question landed at #58: where do genuinely new concepts come from? She flagged it as a central question for AI — whether machines can generate truly original concepts the way human children do remains unanswered. The list doubles as a collective map of science's knowledge frontiers, and highlights conceptual innovation as a key gap between current AI and human intelligence.
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