Archive

Computational physicist Sharon Glotzer is uncovering the rules by which complex collective phenomena emerge from simple building blocks.

The ancient creatures who first crawled onto land may have been lured by the informational benefit that comes from seeing through air.

19th-century mathematicians thought the “roots of unity” were the key to solving Fermat’s Last Theorem. Then they discovered a fatal flaw.

For centuries, mathematicians tried to solve problems by adding new values to the usual numbers. Now they’re investigating the unintended consequences of that tinkering.

A new class of quantum particle is about to emerge from the tangled considerations of quantum statistics.

A decades-old method called the “bootstrap” is enabling new discoveries about the geometry underlying all quantum theories.

For Sylvia Serfaty, mathematics is all about truth and beauty and building scientific and human connections.

The circadian clock is in nearly every cell, and researchers have untangled many of its secrets. But sleep has been harder to pin down.

Can balloon animals help blunt uneasy feelings about “spooky action at a distance”?