Archive

After a decade out of the spotlight, the brain cells once alleged to explain empathy, autism and theory of mind are being refined and redefined.

Mathematicians have illuminated what sets of points can look like if the distances between them are all whole numbers.

Our brain waves can align when we work and play closely together. The phenomenon, known as interbrain synchrony, suggests that collaboration is biological.

Birds flock. Locusts swarm. Fish school. From chaotic assemblies of life, order somehow emerges. In this episode, co-host Steven Strogatz interviews the evolutionary ecologist Iain Couzin about how and why collective behaviors arise.

Russell Impagliazzo studies hard problems, the limits of cryptography, the nature of randomness and more.

Mathematicians are using topological abstractions to find places where it’s hard to vote.

In the search for the most scalable hardware to use for quantum computers, qubits made of individual atoms are having a breakout moment.

Recursion builds bridges between ideas from across different math classes and illustrates the power of creative mathematical thinking.

Large language models do better at solving problems when they show their work. Researchers are beginning to understand why.