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Abstractions blog

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Stringy filaments wiggling against a black background.
Abstractions blog

Some Physicists See Signs of Cosmic Strings From the Big Bang

By Thomas Lewton
September 29, 2020
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Subtle aberrations in the clockwork blinking of stars could become “the result of the century.” That’s if the distortions are produced by a network of giant filaments left over from the birth of the universe.

Looping video of illustrated clocks stretching in different directions.
Abstractions blog

Reasons Revealed for the Brain’s Elastic Sense of Time

By Jordana Cepelewicz
September 24, 2020
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New research finds that the subjective experience of time is linked to learning, thwarted expectations and neural fatigue.

Photo of students sitting at desks competing in the International Mathematical Olympiad
Abstractions blog

At the Math Olympiad, Computers Prepare to Go for the Gold

By Kevin Hartnett
September 21, 2020
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Computer scientists are trying to build an AI system that can win a gold medal at the world’s premier math competition.

water molecules, droplets and a wave
Abstractions blog

How Mathematical ‘Hocus-Pocus’ Saved Particle Physics

By Charlie Wood
September 17, 2020
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Renormalization has become perhaps the single most important advance in theoretical physics in 50 years.

Aerial image of a complicated road network.
Abstractions blog

A New Algorithm for Graph Crossings, Hiding in Plain Sight

By Stephanie DeMarco
September 15, 2020
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Two computer scientists found — in the unlikeliest of places — just the idea they needed to make a big leap in graph theory.

Distorted galaxies
Abstractions blog

A New Cosmic Tension: The Universe Might Be Too Thin

By Charlie Wood
September 8, 2020
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Cosmologists have concluded that the universe doesn’t appear to clump as much as it should. Could both of cosmology’s big puzzles share a single fix?

An illustration of an ant walking in a straight line around a dodecahedron.
Abstractions blog

Mathematicians Report New Discovery About the Dodecahedron

By Erica Klarreich
August 31, 2020
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Three mathematicians have resolved a fundamental question about straight paths on the 12-sided Platonic solid.

Photo of Marijn Heule walking among computer processors
Abstractions blog

Computer Scientists Attempt to Corner the Collatz Conjecture

By Kevin Hartnett
August 26, 2020
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A powerful technique called SAT solving could work on the notorious Collatz conjecture. But it’s a long shot.

Photograph of a bat in flight.
Abstractions blog

Can Vaccines for Wildlife Prevent Human Pandemics?

By Rodrigo Pérez Ortega
August 24, 2020
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Studies suggest that self-disseminating vaccines could prevent the “spillover” of animal viruses into humans as pandemic diseases.


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