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Latest Articles

A female Bolivian squirrel monkey with a baby on its back, walking across a suspended rope ladder. A third money crouches behind it.
evolution

Animal Mutation Rates Reveal Traits That Speed Evolution

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
April 5, 2023
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The first large-scale comparison of mutation rates gives insights into how quickly species can evolve.

The Joy of Why

What Has the Pandemic Taught Us About Vaccines?

By Steven Strogatz
April 5, 2023
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Should Covid-19 vaccines be judged by how well they prevent disease or how well they prevent death? Anna Durbin, a public health expert and vaccine researcher, talks with Steven Strogatz about the science behind vaccines.

geometry

Hobbyist Finds Math’s Elusive ‘Einstein’ Tile

By Erica Klarreich
April 4, 2023
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The surprisingly simple tile is the first single, connected tile that can fill the entire plane in a pattern that never repeats — and can’t be made to fill it in a repeating way.

algorithms

How Randomness Improves Algorithms

By Ben Brubaker
April 3, 2023
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Unpredictability can help computer scientists solve otherwise intractable problems.

genomics

How a DNA ‘Parasite’ May Have Fragmented Our Genes

By Jake Buehler
March 30, 2023
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A novel type of “jumping gene” may explain why the genomes of complex cells aren’t all equally stuffed with noncoding sequences.

Quantized Columns

The Colorful Problem That Has Long Frustrated Mathematicians

By David S. Richeson
March 29, 2023
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The four-color problem is simple to explain, but its complex proof continues to be both celebrated and despised.

astrophysics

Astronomers Dig Up the Stars That Birthed the Milky Way

By Lyndie Chiou
March 28, 2023
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There once was a cosmic seed that sprouted the Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers have discovered its last surviving remnants.

Q&A

Emmy Murphy Is a Mathematician Who Finds Beauty in Flexibility

By Erica Klarreich
March 27, 2023
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The prize-winning geometer feels most fulfilled when exploring the fertile ground where constraint meets creation.

Quantized Academy

The Symmetry That Makes Solving Math Equations Easy

By Patrick Honner
March 24, 2023
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Learn why the quadratic formula works and why quadratics are easier to solve than cubics.


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