Ben Brubaker

Staff Writer

Latest Articles

In Neural Networks, Unbreakable Locks Can Hide Invisible Doors

March 2, 2023

Cryptographers have shown how perfect security can undermine machine learning models.

Q&A

The Computer Scientist Who Finds Life Lessons in Games

January 25, 2023

In Shang-Hua Teng’s work, theoretical and practical questions have long been intertwined. Now he’s turning his focus to the impractical.

Finally, a Fast Algorithm for Shortest Paths on Negative Graphs

January 18, 2023

Researchers can now find the shortest route through a network nearly as fast as theoretically possible, even when some steps can cancel out others.

New Algorithm Closes Quantum Supremacy Window

January 9, 2023

Random circuit sampling, a popular technique for showing the power of quantum computers, doesn’t scale up if errors go unchecked.

AI Reveals New Possibilities in Matrix Multiplication

November 23, 2022

Inspired by the results of a game-playing neural network, mathematicians have been making unexpected advances on an age-old math problem.

Chaos Researchers Can Now Predict Perilous Points of No Return

September 15, 2022

A custom-built machine learning algorithm can predict when a complex system is about to switch to a wildly different mode of behavior.

Wheel Made of ‘Odd Matter’ Spontaneously Rolls Uphill

June 15, 2022

Physicists have solved a key problem of robotic locomotion by revising the usual rules of interaction between simple component parts.

Physicists Pin Down How Quantum Uncertainty Sharpens Measurements

May 3, 2022

Throwing out data seems to make measurements of distances and angles more precise. The reason why has been traced to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle.

Four Years On, New Experiment Sees No Sign of ‘Cosmic Dawn’

February 28, 2022

When astronomers tried to confirm a signal from the birth of the first stars after the Big Bang, they saw nothing.

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