Courtesy of Samuel Jinglian Li
Modular forms are one of the most beautiful and mysterious objects in mathematics. What are they?
To catch even a whiff of the universe’s earliest epochs — an age of darkness, and one of new light — Cynthia Chiang builds her own equipment. Then she deploys it at the ends of the Earth.
Some modern image generators rely on the principles of diffusion to create images. Alternatives based on the process behind the distribution of charged particles may yield even better results.
Every species develops at its own unique tempo, leaving scientists to wonder what governs their timing. A suite of new findings suggests that cells use basic metabolic processes as clocks.
By using “classical shadows,” ordinary computers can beat quantum computers at the tricky task of understanding quantum behaviors.
On its surface, the Kakeya conjecture is a simple statement about rotating needles. But it underlies a wealth of mathematics.
Measurement and entanglement both have a “spooky” nonlocal flavor to them. Now physicists are harnessing that nonlocality to probe the spread of quantum information and control it.
A new proof breaks a decades-long drought of progress on the problem of estimating the size of triangles created by cramming points into a square.
Today’s language models are more sophisticated than ever, but they still struggle with the concept of negation. That’s unlikely to change anytime soon.
The space telescope is one of the most ambitious scientific projects ever undertaken. Marcia Rieke and Nikole Lewis, two of the scientists leading JWST investigations, talk to Steven Strogatz about how it may transform our understanding of the universe.
Explore a universe of numbers and arithmetic in our new interactive math game, Hyperjumps!
Illuminating basic science and math research through public service journalism.
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