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Abstractions blog

Two red loops connected by a ghostly tube.
topology

How Complex Is a Knot? New Proof Reveals Ranking System That Works

By Leila Sloman
May 18, 2022
Read Later

“Ribbon concordance” will let mathematicians compare knots by linking them across four-dimensional space.

Illustration of a glass box illuminated inside by a red lightbulb. A ray of green light shoots out of the box.
quantum physics

Puzzling Quantum Scenario Appears Not to Conserve Energy

By Katie McCormick
May 16, 2022
Read Later

By resolving a paradox about light in a box, researchers hope to clarify the concept of energy in quantum theory.

astrophysics

Black Hole Image Reveals the Beast Inside the Milky Way’s Heart

By Jonathan O'Callaghan
May 12, 2022
Read Later

In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope released a historic image of a supermassive black hole in another galaxy. The follow-up — an image of Sagittarius A* — shows it shimmering at the center of our own.

Illustration of a wooly mammoth with its hind quarters still being assembled from digital blocks.
explainers

Why ‘De-Extinction’ Is Impossible (But Could Work Anyway)

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
May 9, 2022
Read Later

Several projects are aiming to bring back mammoths and other species that have vanished from the planet. Whether that’s technically possible is beside the point.

An illustration of calipers that look blurry
quantum physics

Physicists Pin Down How Quantum Uncertainty Sharpens Measurements

By Ben Brubaker
May 3, 2022
Read Later

Throwing out data seems to make measurements of distances and angles more precise. The reason why has been traced to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle.

A ring of bubbles in blue water.
fluid dynamics

Mathematicians Coax Fluid Equations Into Nonphysical Solutions

By Leila Sloman
May 2, 2022
Read Later

The famed Navier-Stokes equations can lead to cases where more than one result is possible, but only in an extremely narrow set of situations.

A mathematical graph with plant roots.
number theory

New Proof Illuminates the Hidden Structure of Common Equations

By Leila Sloman
April 21, 2022
Read Later

Van der Waerden’s conjecture mystified mathematicians for 85 years. Its solution shows how polynomial roots relate to one another.

Five mountain landscapes on floating scrolls representing possible cryptographic worlds.
cryptography

Which Computational Universe Do We Live In?

By Erica Klarreich
April 18, 2022
Read Later

Cryptographers want to know which of five possible worlds we inhabit, which will reveal whether truly secure cryptography is even possible.

Illustration of a red monster with many heads, each corresponding to a word, with an array of floating words to choose from and a background showing a network’s connections
neural networks

Researchers Gain New Understanding From Simple AI

By Mordechai Rorvig
April 14, 2022
Read Later

Language processing programs are notoriously hard to interpret, but smaller versions can provide important insights into how they work.


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