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A New Blast May Have Forged Cosmic Gold

March 23, 2017

For decades, researchers believed that violent supernovas forged gold and other heavy elements. But many now argue for a different cosmic quarry.

Yves Meyer, Wavelet Expert, Wins Abel Prize

March 21, 2017

The French mathematician was cited “for his pivotal role in the development of the mathematical theory of wavelets.”

A Ticking Evolutionary Clock

March 16, 2017

How quickly will a gene’s rate of evolution slow to a crawl?

Evolution Runs Faster on Short Timescales

March 14, 2017

Examine evolution over the course of years or centuries, and you’ll find that it progresses much more quickly than it does over geologic time.

Solution: ‘Taming Quantum Weirdness’

March 10, 2017

A simple analogue could offer insights into one of the most astonishing results of quantum mechanics.

19 Women Leading Math and Physics

March 8, 2017

Top women in mathematics and physics discuss how they got to where they are — and why there aren’t more of them.

Q&A

‘Digital Alchemist’ Seeks Rules of Emergence

March 8, 2017

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

Why Did Life Move to Land? For the View

March 7, 2017

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

The Almost-Proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem

March 3, 2017

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

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