Chances are, you remember Erwin Schrödinger for his famous cat, but the high point of the celebrated physicist’s career was actually unrelated to feline thought experiments. Among scientists, he’s more renowned for giving us the fundamental tools to describe quantum behavior.

The last day of the 2015 World Science Festival saw entertaining discussions of the purpose of sleep, the nature of time, and the potential ways we might harness quantum mechanics—plus a science takeover of Washington Square Park.

Seven days, lots of science in the news. And many of this week’s most notable and quotable items tie directly to our 2015 festival programs. We thought it’d be cool to link the two to show, you know, we have our finger on the pulse of science. Team of scientists, led by Professor Lee Berger, discovers two-million-year-old skin, thought to possibly be the oldest fossilized skin ever found, near Johannesburg, in South Africa. Related 2015 WSF program: Lee Berger will be participating in our Pioneers in Science program on Friday, May 29, 2015 and our Planet of the Humans: Leap to the Top program on May 29. Scientists announced the discovery of a new microbe that’s being called “the missing link between single cells and complex life.” Related 2015 WSF program: How humans evolved from single-celled organisms to walking on the moon is the subject of Planet of the Humans on Friday, May 29. A blood test may be able to predict cancer years in advance, thanks to new research into telomeres, the end caps on DNA. Such predictions are based on probability, the backbone of science. Related 2015 WSF program: How well do you understand probability? Find out at our Wizards of Odds event on Saturday, May 30. …

On October 22, the World Science Festival will be looking at the history of dreamers, nerds, inventors, and businessmen who have shaped our digital age and continue to propel it forward at Science and Story: The History of the Future, with the help of Walter Isaacson, author of the new book The Innovators. In the spirit of the event, we wanted to look a little further into the future, to the next computing revolution waiting in the wings.

A packed house at New York University’s Skirball Center was in attendance for a reading of Alan Alda’s play “Dear Albert” on May 28, the first day of the 2014 World Science Festival. The work, drawing from the personal letters of Einstein (Paul Rudd), his first wife, Mileva Maric (Cynthia Nixon) and other figures in their lives (Francesca Faridany, who also narrates). It’s a humanizing, funny, and at times troubling peek at the heart of the man whom most of us know as just a metonymy for genius with fright-wig hair.