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Physicists Finally Find a Problem That Only Quantum Computers Can Do

March 12, 2024

Researchers have shown that a problem relating to the energy of a quantum system is easy for quantum computers but hard for classical ones.

Tiny Tweaks to Neurons Can Rewire Animal Motion

March 11, 2024

Altering a protein in the neurons that coordinate a rattlesnake’s movement made a slow slither neuron more like a speedy rattle neuron, showing one way evolution can generate new ways of moving.

New Breakthrough Brings Matrix Multiplication Closer to Ideal

March 7, 2024

By eliminating a hidden inefficiency, computer scientists have come up with a new way to multiply large matrices that’s faster than ever.

Cellular Self-Destruction May Be Ancient. But Why?

March 6, 2024

How did cells evolve a process to end their own lives? Recent research suggests that apoptosis, a form of programmed cell death, first arose billions of years ago in bacteria with a primitive sociality.

Elliptic Curve ‘Murmurations’ Found With AI Take Flight

March 5, 2024

Mathematicians are working to fully explain unusual behaviors uncovered using artificial intelligence.

Fresh X-Rays Reveal a Universe as Clumpy as Cosmology Predicts

March 4, 2024

By mapping the largest structures in the universe in X-rays, cosmologists have found striking agreement with their standard theoretical model of how the universe evolves.

Mollusk Eyes Reveal How Future Evolution Depends on the Past

February 29, 2024

The visual systems of an obscure group of mollusks provide a rare natural example of path-dependent evolution, in which a critical fork in the creatures’ past determined their evolutionary futures.

What Is the Nature of Time?

February 29, 2024

Time is all around us: in the language we use, in the memories we revisit and in our predictions of the future. But what exactly is it? The physicist and Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek joins Steve Strogatz to discuss the fundamental hallmarks of time.

How Selective Forgetting Can Help AI Learn Better

February 28, 2024

Erasing key information during training results in machine learning models that can learn new languages faster and more easily.

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