Archive

Large language models like ChatGPT are now big enough that they’ve started to display startling, unpredictable behaviors.

In a recent paper, two mathematicians showed that a particular pattern is unavoidable when fractions are categorized.

The most comprehensive survey of how we share our microbiomes suggests a new way of thinking about the risks of developing some diseases that aren’t usually considered contagious.

Cosmologists are using secondary signatures from the cosmic microwave background to map the universe’s hidden matter.

Arvind Narayanan uses quantitative methods to expose and correct the misuse of quantitative methods.

Using “refreshingly old” tools, mathematicians resolved a 50-year-old conjecture about how to categorize important functions called modular forms, with consequences for number theory and theoretical physics.

By genetically instructing cells to perform tasks that they wouldn’t in nature, synthetic biologists can learn deep secrets about how life works. Steven Strogatz discusses the potential of this young field with researcher Michael Elowitz.

A paper in Nature reports the discovery of a superconductor that operates at room temperatures and near-room pressures. The claim has divided the research community.

New calculations suggest that the event horizons around black holes will ‘decohere’ quantum possibilities — even those that are far away.