The computational physicist Sharon Glotzer finds unifying principles that structure the chaotic dance of the particles that make up matter.
Roddy Grieves
neuroscience
How Animals Map 3D Spaces Surprises Brain Researchers
When animals move through 3D spaces, the neat system of grid cell activity they use for navigating on flat surfaces gets more disorderly. That has implications for some ideas about memory and other processes.
applied math
How Wavelets Allow Researchers to Transform, and Understand, Data
Built upon the ubiquitous Fourier transform, the mathematical tools known as wavelets allow unprecedented analysis and understanding of continuous signals.
Q&A
The Astronomer Who’s About to See the Skies of Other Earths
After the ultra-powerful James Webb Space Telescope launches later this year, Laura Kreidberg will lead two efforts to check the weather on rocky planets orbiting other stars.
neural networks
A New Link to an Old Model Could Crack the Mystery of Deep Learning
To help them explain the shocking success of deep neural networks, researchers are turning to older but better-understood models of machine learning.
mathematical physics
Mathematicians Prove Melting Ice Stays Smooth
After decades of effort, mathematicians now have a complete understanding of the complicated equations that model the motion of free boundaries, like the one between ice and water.
Nobel Prize
Chemistry Nobel Prize Honors Technique for Building Molecules
Benjamin List and David MacMillan received the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their development of asymmetrical organocatalysis.
Nobel Prize
Medicine Nobel Prize Goes to Temperature and Touch Discoveries
David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian were awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries of how we detect heat and touch.
Q&A
Anil Seth Finds Consciousness in Life’s Push Against Entropy
How does consciousness arise in mere flesh and blood? To the neuroscientist Anil Seth, our organic bodies are the key to the experience.
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Illuminating basic science and math research through public service journalism.
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