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Abstractions blog

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Diagram showing a colorful visualization of the simple Lie group
Abstractions blog

The ‘Useless’ Perspective That Transformed Mathematics

By Kevin Hartnett
June 9, 2020
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Representation theory was initially dismissed. Today, it’s central to much of mathematics.

The skeletons of a man and woman, showing the difference in their heights.
Abstractions blog

Males Are the Taller Sex. Estrogen, Not Fights for Mates, May Be Why.

By Christie Wilcox
June 8, 2020
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To explain why men are on average taller than women, scientists theorized about competition for mates. But the effects of estrogen on bone growth may be answer enough.

A digital simulacrum of a protein.
Abstractions blog

A Digital Locksmith Has Decoded Biology’s Molecular Keys

By John Pavlus
June 3, 2020
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Neural networks have been taught to quickly read the surfaces of proteins — molecules critical to many biological processes.

An illustration of a knot that mathematicians might study using tools called invariants.
Abstractions blog

In a Single Measure, Invariants Capture the Essence of Math Objects

By Erica Klarreich
June 2, 2020
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To distinguish between fundamentally different objects, mathematicians turn to invariants that encode the objects’ essential features.

Photo of various colorful maps
Abstractions blog

In Mathematics, It Often Takes a Good Map to Find Answers

By Kevin Hartnett
June 1, 2020
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Mathematicians try to figure out when problems can be solved using current knowledge — and when they have to chart a new path instead.

Lines representing paths of particles fan out from a point and pass through a series of detectors.
Abstractions blog

Growing Anomalies at the Large Hadron Collider Raise Hopes

By Charlie Wood
May 26, 2020
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Collider physicists report that several measurements of particles called B mesons deviate from predictions. Alone, each oddity looks like a fluke, but their collective drift is more suggestive.

Stalks and spore bodies of a slime mold rise above a smooth surface.
Abstractions blog

Out-of-Sync ‘Loners’ May Secretly Protect Orderly Swarms

By Jordana Cepelewicz
May 21, 2020
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Studies of collective behavior usually focus on how crowds of organisms coordinate their actions. But what if the individuals that don’t participate have just as much to tell us?

A baby lizard emerging from a transparent egg membrane.
Abstractions blog

Egg Laying or Live Birth: How Evolution Chooses

By Dana Najjar
May 18, 2020
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A lizard that both lays eggs and gives birth to live young is helping scientists understand how and why these forms of reproduction evolved.

A quantum knot.
Abstractions blog

‘Milestone’ Evidence for Anyons, a Third Kingdom of Particles

By Dana Najjar
May 12, 2020
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Anyons don’t fit into either of the two known particle kingdoms. To find them, physicists had to erase the third dimension.


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