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Abstractions blog

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Abstractions blog

19 Women Leading Math and Physics

By Natalie Wolchover
March 8, 2017
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Top women in mathematics and physics discuss how they got to where they are — and why there aren’t more of them.

Abstractions blog

The Almost-Proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem

By Kevin Hartnett
March 3, 2017
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19th-century mathematicians thought the “roots of unity” were the key to solving Fermat’s Last Theorem. Then they discovered a fatal flaw.

Clock
Abstractions blog

How Circadian Clocks Differ From Sleep

By Veronique Greenwood
February 17, 2017
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The circadian clock is in nearly every cell, and researchers have untangled many of its secrets. But sleep has been harder to pin down.

Mobius strip illustration
Abstractions blog

The Hidden Twist to Making a Möbius Strip

By Kevin Hartnett
February 9, 2017
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The simple Möbius strip illustrates a deep mathematical challenge that has long tormented the field of symplectic geometry.

Abstractions blog

How Viruses May Have Led to Complex Life

By Jeanette Kazmierczak
January 24, 2017
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Without viruses, we might never have evolved.

Photo of raindrops on a window by Philip Kraaijenbrink
Abstractions blog

Droplets That ‘Come to Life’

By Natalie Wolchover
January 20, 2017
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Life might have originated in droplets that behave surprisingly like living cells.

Illustration: boxing gloves
Abstractions blog

Graph Isomorphism Vanquished — Again

By Erica Klarreich
January 14, 2017
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Just five days after posting a retraction, László Babai announced that he had fixed the error in his landmark graph isomorphism algorithm.

Hyperbolic Crochet
Abstractions blog

How Curvature Makes a Shape a Shape

By Kevin Hartnett
January 9, 2017
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The ancient study of an object’s curvature is guiding mathematicians toward a new understanding of simple equations.

Illustration: boxing glove & graph
Abstractions blog

Complexity Theory Problem Strikes Back

By Erica Klarreich
January 5, 2017
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The legendary graph isomorphism problem may be harder than a 2015 result seemed to suggest.


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