A top story

The top quark, discovered nearly 20 years ago, is now copiously produced at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, which allows detailed studies and interpretations of its properties. It remains the heaviest elementary particle ever found. Its strong interaction properties are those of any other quark, but its large coupling to the Higgs boson suggests a special role in electroweak symmetry breaking. I review recent efforts to compute top quark properties precisely, and discuss the more speculative questions: Does the top quark, elusive as it is, determine the fate of the Universe? Does naturalness require top partners, and what and where are they?