Archive

Results from neural networks support the idea that brains are “prediction machines” — and that they work that way to conserve energy.

In nonreciprocal systems, where Newton’s third law falls apart, “exceptional points” are helping researchers understand phase transitions and possibly other phenomena.

Physicists are translating commonsense principles into strict mathematical constraints on how our universe must have behaved at the beginning of time.

New work establishes a tighter connection between the rank of a polynomial and the extent to which it favors particular outputs.

The brain not only helps to regulate immune responses, but also stores and retrieves “memories” of them.

A new study of gene expression in sponges reveals the complex diversity of their cells as well as some possibly ancient connections between the nervous, immune and digestive systems.

Over the past decade, researchers have completely rewritten the story of how gas giants such as Jupiter and Saturn form. They’re now debating whether the same process might hold for Earth.

The computational biologist Anne Carpenter creates software that brings the power of machine learning to researchers seeking answers in mountains of cell images.

Algorithms that zero in on solutions to optimization problems are the beating heart of machine reasoning. New results reveal surprising limits.