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Abstractions blog

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A video of a large chunk of ice breaking off of a glacier and crashing into the ocean.]
complex systems

Chaos Researchers Can Now Predict Perilous Points of No Return

By Ben Brubaker
September 15, 2022
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A custom-built machine learning algorithm can predict when a complex system is about to switch to a wildly different mode of behavior.

A transformer model is superimposed on a human brain with a red background
neural networks

How Transformers Seem to Mimic Parts of the Brain

By Stephen Ornes
September 12, 2022
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Neural networks originally designed for language processing turn out to be great models of how our brains understand places.

Illustration of thumbs flipping coins.
information theory

How Shannon Entropy Imposes Fundamental Limits on Communication

By Kevin Hartnett
September 6, 2022
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What’s a message, really? Claude Shannon recognized that the elemental ingredient is surprise.

A yellow and orange blob of light appears against a purple grainy background.
astronomy

Webb Space Telescope Snaps Its First Photo of an Exoplanet

By Jonathan O'Callaghan
September 1, 2022
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The grainy image of a “super-Jupiter” is a sign of what’s to come as the telescope’s exoplanet observations ramp up.

immunology

Bacteria’s Immune Sensors Reveal a Novel Way to Detect Viruses

By Annie Melchor
August 29, 2022
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A new study reveals that bacteria can fight viruses in a surprisingly elegant way that has no known counterpart in more complex life.

cryptography

‘Post-Quantum’ Cryptography Scheme Is Cracked on a Laptop

By Jordana Cepelewicz
August 24, 2022
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Two researchers have broken an encryption protocol that many saw as a promising defense against the power of quantum computing.

Closeup of the face of an electric eel.
evolution

Electric Fish Genomes Reveal How Evolution Repeats Itself

By Joanna Thompson
August 22, 2022
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By studying how electric organs arose in different lineages of fish, scientists gain new insights into a long-standing question of evolutionary biology.

number theory

A Numerical Mystery From the 19th Century Finally Gets Solved

By Leila Sloman
August 15, 2022
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Two mathematicians have proven Patterson’s conjecture, which was designed to explain a strange pattern in sums involving prime numbers.

Video in which a white circle appears in the center of a blue starry field and grows until whiteness engulfs the whole image.
explainers

How the Physics of Nothing Underlies Everything

By Charlie Wood
August 9, 2022
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The key to understanding the origin and fate of the universe may be a more complete understanding of the vacuum.


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