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Ninth Dedekind Number Found by Two Independent Groups

August 1, 2023

The numbers count a variety of seemingly unrelated mathematical structures.

How Genetic Surprises Complicate the Old Doctrine of DNA

July 31, 2023

For over a century, biologists have had to contend with a complicated picture of genetics, which they’ve only recently begun to understand.

Q&A

The Cryptographer Who Ensures We Can Trust Our Computers

July 27, 2023

Yael Tauman Kalai’s breakthroughs secure our digital world, from cloud computing to our quantum future.

Does Nothingness Exist?

July 26, 2023

Even empty space bubbles with energy, according to quantum mechanics — and that fact affects almost every facet of physical reality. The theoretical physicist Isabel Garcia Garcia explains to Steven Strogatz why it’s so important in modern physics to understand what a true vacuum is.

Why Insect Memories May Not Survive Metamorphosis

July 26, 2023

The reshuffling of neurons during fruit fly metamorphosis suggests that larval memories don’t persist in adults.

How (Nearly) Nothing Might Solve Cosmology’s Biggest Questions

July 25, 2023

By measuring the universe’s emptiest spaces, scientists can study how matter clumps together and how fast it flies apart.

New Proof Shows That ‘Expander’ Graphs Synchronize

July 24, 2023

The proof establishes new conditions that cause connected oscillators to sway in sync.

Math That Lets You Think Locally but Act Globally

July 21, 2023

Knowing a little about the local connections on flight maps and other networks can reveal a lot about a system’s global structure.

To Move Fast, Quantum Maze Solvers Must Forget the Past

July 20, 2023

Quantum algorithms can find their way out of mazes exponentially faster than classical ones, at the cost of forgetting the path they took. A new result suggests that the trade-off may be inevitable.

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