Archive

Cancer treatment has come a long way in recent decades. But finding the best course of treatment for each case of this diverse, dynamic disease remains a challenge. In this episode, co-host Steven Strogatz speaks with computational biologist Franziska Michor about how math, statistical models and machine learning may be critical to the next generation of cancer care.

Astronomers are reveling in the James Webb Space Telescope’s discoveries about the formative epoch of cosmic history.

To better understand machine learning algorithms, Lenka Zdeborová treats them like physical materials.

Three researchers have figured out how to craft a proof that spreads out information while keeping it perfectly secret.

Across the social and biological sciences, statisticians use a technique that leverages randomness to deal with the unknown.

Invisibly to us, insects and other tiny creatures use static electricity to travel, avoid predators, collect pollen and more. New experiments explore how evolution may have influenced this phenomenon.

Extremophiles, or microbes that live in the most seemingly hostile environments, are the darlings of astrobiologists, who study the potential for life beyond Earth. In this episode, co-host Janna Levin speaks with astrobiologist and cave explorer Penelope Boston about how life finds a way — and whether it might have found a way elsewhere in our solar system or around a distant star.

Curious connections between physics and math suggest to Latham Boyle that space-time may survive the jump to the next theory of reality.

A decade after the discovery of the “amplituhedron,” physicists have excavated more of the timeless geometry underlying the standard picture of how particles move.