Archive

How readers used their geometry skills to survive a dangerous puzzle.

Familiar categories of mental functions such as perception, memory and attention reflect our experience of ourselves, but they are misleading about how the brain works. More revealing approaches are emerging.

The five-decade-old paradox — long thought key to linking quantum theory with Einstein’s theory of gravity — is falling to a new generation of thinkers. Netta Engelhardt is leading the way.

Researchers are turning to the mathematics of higher-order interactions to better model the complex connections within their data.

By showing that even large objects can exhibit bizarre quantum behaviors, physicists hope to illuminate the mystery of quantum collapse, identify the quantum nature of gravity, and perhaps even make Schrödinger’s cat a reality.

The most widely used technique for finding the largest or smallest values of a math function turns out to be a fundamentally difficult computational problem.

The evolution of a defensive gland in beetles shows how organs can arise from novel cells carving out new functional niches for their neighbors.

The unambiguous discovery of a Wigner crystal relied on a novel technique for probing the insides of complex materials.

When Steven Weinberg died last month, the world lost one of its most profound thinkers.