Archive

The Tonga eruption in January was “basically like Krakatoa 2.” This time, geophysicists could explain the tiny tsunamis that cropped up all over the planet, solving a 139-year-old mystery about Tonga’s predecessor.

For centuries, mathematicians have tried to prove that Euler’s fluid equations can produce nonsensical answers. A new approach to machine learning has researchers betting that “blowup” is near.

Life could use a more expansive genetic code in theory, but new work shows that improving on three-letter codons would be a challenge.

Learn the magic and math of how to win games when your opponent goes first.

A new analysis of W bosons suggests these particles are significantly heavier than predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics.

Steven Strogatz explores the mysteries of knots with the mathematicians Colin Adams and Lisa Piccirillo.

The existence of secure cryptography depends on one of the oldest questions in computational complexity.

The optical properties of mitochondrial bundles in the retina may improve how efficiently the eye captures light.

The result could help researchers answer a larger question about flattening objects from the fourth dimension to the third dimension.