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Chaos Researchers Can Now Predict Perilous Points of No Return
A custom-built machine learning algorithm can predict when a complex system is about to switch to a wildly different mode of behavior.
How Transformers Seem to Mimic Parts of the Brain
Neural networks originally designed for language processing turn out to be great models of how our brains understand places.
How Shannon Entropy Imposes Fundamental Limits on Communication
What’s a message, really? Claude Shannon recognized that the elemental ingredient is surprise.
Webb Space Telescope Snaps Its First Photo of an Exoplanet
The grainy image of a “super-Jupiter” is a sign of what’s to come as the telescope’s exoplanet observations ramp up.
Bacteria’s Immune Sensors Reveal a Novel Way to Detect Viruses
A new study reveals that bacteria can fight viruses in a surprisingly elegant way that has no known counterpart in more complex life.
‘Post-Quantum’ Cryptography Scheme Is Cracked on a Laptop
Two researchers have broken an encryption protocol that many saw as a promising defense against the power of quantum computing.
Electric Fish Genomes Reveal How Evolution Repeats Itself
By studying how electric organs arose in different lineages of fish, scientists gain new insights into a long-standing question of evolutionary biology.
A Numerical Mystery From the 19th Century Finally Gets Solved
Two mathematicians have proven Patterson’s conjecture, which was designed to explain a strange pattern in sums involving prime numbers.
How the Physics of Nothing Underlies Everything
The key to understanding the origin and fate of the universe may be a more complete understanding of the vacuum.