2014 Fields Medal and Nevanlinna Prize Winners Announced
Latest Articles
How the Bird Eye Was Pushed to an Evolutionary Extreme
The bird retina is one of the most energetically expensive tissues in the animal kingdom, yet it doesn’t use the energy advantage of oxygen. New research finally explains how this is possible.
How Unknowable Math Can Help Hide Secrets
A graduate student recently harnessed the complexity of mathematical proofs to create a powerful new tool in cryptography.
Will We Ever Be Able To Forecast Volcanic Eruptions Like Weather?
It should be possible, but getting there will require a greater understanding of subsurface physics.
What Causes Lightning? The Answer Keeps Getting More Interesting.
Armed with a slew of new instruments, physicists are closing in on one of nature’s oldest mysteries — and finding that storm clouds are seething with violent and unexpected phenomena.
The Hidden Mathematical Dance Inside Plant Cells
The sunlight-collecting organelles known as chloroplasts solve a packing problem: how to optimize photosynthesis without sustaining damage from dangerously intense rays.
A Treasure Trove of Cambrian Fossils Rewrites the Story of Early Life
Remarkably preserved fossils found in southern China offer a fascinating window into what life looked like at the end of the Cambrian explosion, with half of the species uncovered being new to science.
What Can We Gain by Losing Infinity?
Ultrafinitism, a philosophy that rejects the infinite, has long been dismissed as mathematical heresy. But it is also producing new insights in math and beyond.
Why Math’s Final Axiom Proved So Controversial
Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory is so widely accepted that modern mathematicians hardly think about it. But believing in its core principles didn’t come easily.
Physicists Discover the Most Complex Forms of Ice Yet
Scientists keep detecting new forms of ice. According to simulations, there could be many more left to find.