Abstractions blog

For all their triumphs, AI systems can’t seem to generalize the concepts of “same” and “different.” Without that, researchers worry, the quest to create truly intelligent machines may be hopeless.

Animals sculpt the optical properties of their tissues at the nanoscale to give themselves “structural colors.” New work is piecing together how they do it.

Superconductivity has been discovered in graphene devices without any twists, suggesting the form of superconductivity in the material might be mundane after all.

Scientists have long struggled to understand how common planets form. A new supercomputer simulation shows that the missing ingredient may be magnetism.

In some symbiotic partnerships, an RNA-based mechanism may sabotage the growth of greedy hosts.

Groundbreaking results show that neutron stars of different masses may have the same size — upending astrophysical models.

A pair of mathematicians solved a legendary question about the proportion of vertices in a graph with an odd number of connections.

Transcription factors that act throughout the genome can arise from mashups of transposable elements inserted into established genes.

Originally devised as a rigorous means of counting holes, homology provides a scaffolding for mathematical ideas, allowing for a new way to analyze the shapes within data.