2022 in Review

Latest Articles

Self-Assembly Gets Automated in Reverse of ‘Game of Life’

September 10, 2025

In cellular automata, simple rules create elaborate structures. Now researchers can start with the structures and reverse-engineer the rules.

Tiny Tubes Reveal Clues to the Evolution of Complex Life

September 8, 2025

Scientists have identified tubulin structures in primitive Asgard archea that may have been the precursor of our own cellular skeletons.

Analog vs. Digital: The Race Is On To Simulate Our Quantum Universe

September 5, 2025

Recent progress on both analog and digital simulations of quantum fields foreshadows a future in which quantum computers could illuminate phenomena that are far too complex for even the most powerful supercomputers.

What Is the Fourier Transform?

September 3, 2025

Amid the chaos of revolutionary France, one man’s mathematical obsession gave way to a calculation that now underpins much of mathematics and physics. The calculation, called the Fourier transform, decomposes any function into its parts.

Circuit board with a snowglobe inside

‘World Models,’ an Old Idea in AI, Mount a Comeback

You’re carrying around in your head a model of how the world works. Will AI systems need to do the same?

The Sudden Surges That Forge Evolutionary Trees

August 28, 2025

An updated evolutionary model shows that living systems evolve in a split-and-hit-the-gas dynamic, where new lineages appear in sudden bursts rather than during a long marathon of gradual changes.

Astrophysicists Find No ‘Hair’ on Black Holes

August 27, 2025

According to Einstein’s theory of gravity, black holes have only a small handful of distinguishing characteristics. Quantum theory implies they may have more. Now an experimental search finds that any of this extra ‘hair’ has to be pretty short.

‘Ten Martini’ Proof Uses Number Theory to Explain Quantum Fractals

August 25, 2025

The proof, known to be so hard that a mathematician once offered 10 martinis to whoever could figure it out, connects quantum mechanics to infinitely intricate mathematical structures.

Busy Beaver Hunters Reach Numbers That Overwhelm Ordinary Math

August 22, 2025

The quest to find the longest-running simple computer program has identified a new champion. It’s physically impossible to write out the numbers involved using standard mathematical notation.

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