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Cryptographers Show That AI Protections Will Always Have Holes

December 10, 2025

Large language models such as ChatGPT come with filters to keep certain info from getting out. A new mathematical argument shows that systems like this can never be completely safe.

Mixing Is the Heartbeat of Deep Lakes. At Crater Lake, It’s Slowing Down.

November 14, 2025

The physics of mixing water layers — an interplay of wind, climate and more — makes lakes work. When it stops, impacts can ripple across an ecosystem.

First Shape Found That Can’t Pass Through Itself

October 24, 2025

After more than three centuries, a geometry problem that originated with a royal bet has been solved.

The Game Theory of How Algorithms Can Drive Up Prices

October 22, 2025

Recent findings reveal that even simple pricing algorithms can make things more expensive.

How the Brain Moves From Waking Life to Sleep (and Back Again)

October 17, 2025

Neuroscientists probing the boundary between sleep and awareness are finding many types of liminal states, which help explain the sleep disorders that can result when sleep transitions go wrong.

The Hidden Math of Ocean Waves Crashes Into View

October 15, 2025

The math of even the simplest ocean waves is notoriously uncooperative. A team of Italian mathematicians has made major advances toward understanding it.

A Thermometer for Measuring Quantumness

October 1, 2025

“Anomalous” heat flow, which at first appears to violate the second law of thermodynamics, gives physicists a way to detect quantum entanglement without destroying it.

A Simple Way To Measure Knots Has Come Unraveled

September 22, 2025

Two mathematicians have proved that a straightforward question — how hard is it to untie a knot? — has a complicated answer.

The Ends of the Earth

September 15, 2025

Building an accurate model of Earth’s climate requires a lot of data. Photography reveals the extreme efforts scientists have undertaken to measure gases, glaciers, clouds and more.