Archive

By considering simple symmetries, physicists working on the “bootstrap” can rediscover the basic form of the known forces that shape the universe.

Many of us are drawn to beauty in mathematics. But is that the way nature really works?

New studies help to explain how microbes in the gut can shape a host’s fear responses.

Smallpox was eradicated relatively quickly, but other diseases have proved harder to eliminate. The reasons are a mix of biology and psychology.

For the first time, physicists have calculated exactly what kind of singularity lies at the center of a realistic black hole.

Physicists have long searched for hypothesized dark matter particles called WIMPs. Now, focus may be shifting to the axion — an ultra-lightweight particle whose existence would solve two mysteries at once.

New research makes a molecular connection between the brain and aging — and shows that overactive neurons can shorten life span.

We finally know how big a set of numbers can get before it has to contain a pattern known as a “polynomial progression.”

Readers’ modifications of a bean machine showed how deterministic laws are capable of producing random-seeming behavior.