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The Riemann Hypothesis, Explained
Alex Kontorovich, professor of mathematics at Rutgers University, breaks down the notoriously difficult Riemann hypothesis in this comprehensive explainer.
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Decoding Math’s Most Famous Fractal
P vs. NP – The Greatest Unsolved Problem in Computer Science
Math’s Famous Map Problem: The Four-Color Theorem
Could One Physics Theory Unlock the Mysteries of the Brain?
The Biggest Project in Modern Mathematics
How NASA’s Webb Telescope Will Transform Our Place in the Universe
The Standard Model: The Most Successful Scientific Theory Ever
Quantum Computers, Explained With Quantum Physics
Black Hole Jets: Unraveling One of the Biggest Mysteries in the Universe
Iceland Is a Portal to Mars
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Predicting Eclipses: The Three Body Problem
Solar eclipse prediction has driven innovation across the history of science and mathematics, from the Saros cycle to Greek geometry to Newton’s calculus to the three-body problem.
Understanding Cryptography With These Five Worlds
Russell Impagliazzo describes the five possible cryptographic worlds we might inhabit.
Why Is This Basic Computer Science Problem So Hard?
Computer scientists have long used vector addition systems to model how certain programs work, but they didn’t have a full understanding of how complicated they could be. Recent work has finally pinned it down, showing that these problems are far more complicated than they seem.
How a New X-Ray Technique Sees Black Holes
Astrophysicist Erin Kara explores black holes by carefully tracking the gas and plasma swirling near their event horizons.
Decoding Math’s Most Famous Fractal
Mathematicians working in the field of complex dynamical systems are patiently unraveling the Mandelbrot set’s mysteries and may be on the verge of solving a fundamental conjecture that would allow them to describe the set completely.
The Math Hiding in Plain Sight
Sarah Hart, the professor of geometry at Gresham College, sees symmetry everywhere.
2023’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Math
In 2023, mathematicians improved bounds on Ramsey numbers, a central measure of order in graphs; found a new aperiodic monotile; and discovered a new upper bound to the size of sets without 3-term arithmetic progressions.
2023’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Physics
In 2023, physicists found the gravitational wave background that’s made by supermassive black hole collisions, teleported quantum energy in the lab, and puzzled over JWST’s potentially cosmology-breaking discoveries.
2023’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Computer Science
In 2023, computer scientists made progress on a new vector-driven approach to AI, fundamentally improved Shor’s algorithm for factoring large numbers, and examined the surprising and powerful behaviors that can emerge from large language models.