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How Pi Connects Colliding Blocks to a Quantum Search Algorithm
A curious physicist has discovered an unexpected link between theoretical block collisions and a famed quantum search algorithm.
For Fluid Equations, a Steady Flow of Progress
A startling experimental discovery about how fluids behave started a wave of important mathematical proofs.
Biodiversity Alters Strategies of Bacterial Evolution
In evolution, context is everything: Bacteria with neighbors evolve to rebuff viruses in a different way.
Unscrambled Eggs: Self-Organization Restores Cells’ Order
To scientists’ surprise, blended mixtures of cytoplasm can reorganize themselves into cell-like compartments with working structural components.
No Dark Energy? No Chance, Cosmologists Contend
A study challenged the evidence for the mysterious antigravitational force known as dark energy. Then cosmologists shot back.
Sleeping Brain Waves Draw a Healthy Bath for Neurons
An organized tide of brain waves, blood and spinal fluid pulsing through a sleeping brain may flush away neural toxins that cause Alzheimer’s and other diseases.
Why the Laws of Physics Are Inevitable
By considering simple symmetries, physicists working on the “bootstrap” can rediscover the basic form of the known forces that shape the universe.
Black Hole Singularities Are as Inescapable as Expected
For the first time, physicists have calculated exactly what kind of singularity lies at the center of a realistic black hole.
Top Dark Matter Candidate Loses Ground to Tiniest Competitor
Physicists have long searched for hypothesized dark matter particles called WIMPs. Now, focus may be shifting to the axion — an ultra-lightweight particle whose existence would solve two mysteries at once.