Science / Physics and Math

Busy Beavers, Science, Science / Physics and Math

Super Slow Computer Programs Reveal Math’s Fundamental Limits

Programmers normally want to minimize the time their code takes to execute. But in 1962, the Hungarian mathematician Tibor Radó…

Rock On, Science, Science / Physics and Math

Geometry Reveals How the World Is Made of Cubes

At first, “everything seemed to work,” Jerolmack said. Domokos’ mathematics had predicted that rock shards should average out to cubes….

Odd Perfect Numbers, Science, Science / Physics and Math

Mathematicians Open a New Front on an Ancient Number Problem

As a high school student in the mid-1990s, Pace Nielsen encountered a mathematical question that he’s still struggling with to…

Science, Science / Physics and Math

Astronomers Are Uncovering the Magnetic Soul of the Universe

Anytime astronomers figure out a new way of looking for magnetic fields in ever more remote regions of the cosmos,…

Science, Science / Physics and Math

Build Your Own Pinhole Videocam!

Admittedly, it’s a very dim image. If there’s any other light leaking into your device, you won’t even be able…

Science / Physics and Math

‘Common Sense’ Is No Substitute for Science in a Pandemic

In his daily coronavirus briefings, President Trump regularly touts the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as possibly one of the “biggest game-changers…

Science, Science / Physics and Math

The New Math Bridge Beyond Fermat’s Last Theorem

When Andrew Wiles proved Fermat’s Last Theorem in the early 1990s, his proof was hailed as a monumental step forward…

Science, Science / Health, Science / Physics and Math

Death Cuts the Degree of Separation Between You and Covid-19

One of the first things they teach wannabe epidemiologists is the shape of the exponential growth curve—how epidemics spread slowly…

Science, Science / Physics and Math

After 50 Years of Effort, Researchers Made Silicon Emit Light

Within the wafer, the silicon atoms are arranged as a cubic crystal lattice that allows electrons to move within the…

Science, Science / Physics and Math

Where Did Plants Come From? This Ancient Algae Offers Clues

Around 500 million years ago—when the Earth was already a ripe 4 billion years old—the first green plants appeared on…