Archive

“Rainbow colorings” recently led to a new proof. It’s not the first time they’ve come in handy.

The neurogenetics pioneer Cori Bargmann speaks with host Steven Strogatz about why a transparent worm became her favorite animal and how a genetic discovery she made inspired a revolutionary cancer treatment.

In a new paper, physicists argue that hypothetical particles called axions could explain why the universe isn’t empty.

In our mind’s eye, the universe seems to go on forever. But using geometry we can explore a variety of three-dimensional shapes that offer alternatives to “ordinary” infinite space.

Ronald Rivest helped come up with the RSA algorithm, which safeguards online commerce. Now he’s hoping to make democratic elections more trustworthy.

Glass is anything that’s rigid like a crystal, yet made of disordered molecules like a liquid. To understand why it exists, researchers are attempting to create the perfect, still-hypothetical “ideal glass.”

The mathematician Tadashi Tokieda and host Steven Strogatz explore what we can learn about the world from simple “toys” with remarkable physical or mathematical properties.

Finding the best way to approximate the ever-elusive irrational numbers pits the infinitely large against the infinitely small.

To combat resistant bacteria and refill the trickling antibiotic pipeline, scientists are getting help from deep learning networks.