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Abstractions blog
origins of life
Life’s First Peptides May Have Grown on RNA Strands
RNA and peptides coevolving in the primordial world might have jointly served as a precursor to the modern ribosome.
computational complexity
How Computer Scientists Learned to Reinvent the Proof
Why verify every line of a proof, when just a few checks will do?
topology
How Complex Is a Knot? New Proof Reveals Ranking System That Works.
“Ribbon concordance” will let mathematicians compare knots by linking them across four-dimensional space.
quantum physics
Puzzling Quantum Scenario Appears Not to Conserve Energy
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
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.
explainers
Why ‘De-Extinction’ Is Impossible (But Could Work Anyway)
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.
quantum physics
Physicists Pin Down How Quantum Uncertainty Sharpens Measurements
Throwing out data seems to make measurements of distances and angles more precise. The reason why has been traced to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle.
fluid dynamics
Mathematicians Coax Fluid Equations Into Nonphysical Solutions
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.
number theory
New Proof Illuminates the Hidden Structure of Common Equations
Van der Waerden’s conjecture mystified mathematicians for 85 years. Its solution shows how polynomial roots relate to one another.
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