Abstractions blog

By studying a swarm of flying midges as though it were a fluid, physicists have learned how collective behaviors might stabilize a group against environmental disruptions.

Randomness would seem to make a mathematical statement harder to prove. In fact, it often does the opposite.

A recent test has confirmed the predictions of quantum trajectory theory.

Opinions differ about what recent measurements of a sound-trapping fluid reveal about light-trapping black holes.

Neven’s law states that quantum computers are improving at a “doubly exponential” rate. If it holds, quantum supremacy is around the corner.

Astronomers have discovered a complex planetary system still swirling into existence.

New experimental results simultaneously advance and challenge the theory that the brain’s network of neurons balances on the knife-edge between two phases.

Immunologists confirm an old hunch: T-cells identify what belongs in the body by timing how long they can bind to it.

A new theoretical model may help explain the shocking onset of superconductivity in stacked, twisted carbon sheets.