Archive

The physicist James Bullock explains how a complicated “dark sector” of interacting particles may illuminate some puzzling observations of the centers of galaxies.

Emerging data suggests the seemingly impossible — that mysterious new genes arise from “junk” DNA.

The solution to this month’s puzzle examines the use of abstract probabilities as an antidote to real-world ignorance.

Did the minerals on our planet arise in a predictable fashion, or did they result from chance events? The answers could eventually help scientists identify planets likely to harbor life.

For more than 50 years, the mathematician Neil Sloane has curated the authoritative collection of interesting and important integer sequences.

Explore the deepest mysteries at the frontier of fundamental physics, and the most promising ideas put forth to solve them.

How do you solve probability problems that appear to have more than one correct answer?

A new technique for finding and characterizing microbes has boosted the number of known bacteria by almost 50 percent, revealing a hidden world all around us.

Computers can translate French and prove mathematical theorems. But can they make deep conceptual insights into the way the world works?