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How the ‘Diamond of the Plant World’ Helped Land Plants Evolve

July 19, 2022

Structural studies of the robust material called sporopollenin reveal how it made plants hardy enough to reproduce on dry land.

Protein Blobs Linked to Alzheimer’s Affect Aging in All Cells

June 28, 2022

Protein buildups like those seen around neurons in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other brain diseases occur in all aging cells, a new study suggests. Learning their significance may reveal new strategies for treating age-related diseases.

The Brain Has a ‘Low-Power Mode’ That Blunts Our Senses

June 14, 2022

Neuroscientists uncovered an energy-saving mode in vision-system neurons that works at the cost of being able to see fine-grained details.

Researchers Achieve ‘Absurdly Fast’ Algorithm for Network Flow

June 8, 2022

Computer scientists can now solve a decades-old problem in practically the time it takes to write it down.

Graduate Student’s Side Project Proves Prime Number Conjecture

June 6, 2022

Jared Duker Lichtman, 26, has proved a longstanding conjecture relating prime numbers to a broad class of “primitive” sets. To his adviser, it came as a “complete shock.”

Physicists Rewrite the Fundamental Law That Leads to Disorder

May 26, 2022

The second law of thermodynamics is among the most sacred in all of science, but it has always rested on 19th century arguments about probability. New arguments trace its true source to the flows of quantum information.

How Complex Is a Knot? New Proof Reveals Ranking System That Works.

May 18, 2022

“Ribbon concordance” will let mathematicians compare knots by linking them across four-dimensional space.

Secrets of the Moon’s Permanent Shadows Are Coming to Light

April 28, 2022

Robots are about to venture into the sunless depths of lunar craters to investigate ancient water ice trapped there, while remote studies find hints about how water arrives on rocky worlds.

Deep Learning Poised to ‘Blow Up’ Famed Fluid Equations

April 12, 2022

For centuries, mathematicians have tried to prove that Euler’s fluid equations can produce nonsensical answers. A new approach to machine learning has researchers betting that “blowup” is near.