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Wildfires of Varying Intensity Can Be Good for Biodiversity

November 29, 2021

The spate of furious wildfires around the world during the past decade has revealed to ecologists how much biodiversity and “pyrodiversity” go hand in hand.

Why e, the Transcendental Math Constant, Is Just the Best

November 24, 2021

The solution to our puzzle about Euler’s number explains why e pops up in situations that involve optimality.

Researchers Defeat Randomness to Create Ideal Code

November 24, 2021

By carefully constructing a multidimensional and well-connected graph, a team of researchers has finally created a long-sought locally testable code that can immediately betray whether it’s been corrupted.

At the Dawn of Life, Heat May Have Driven Cell Division

November 23, 2021

A mathematical model shows how a thermodynamic mechanism could have made protocells split in two.

The Algorithm That Lets Particle Physicists Count Higher Than Two

November 22, 2021

Through his encyclopedic study of the electron, an obscure figure named Stefano Laporta found a handle on the subatomic world’s fearsome complexity. His algorithm has swept the field.

What Hot Dogs Can Teach Us About Number Theory

November 18, 2021

The Chinese remainder theorem is an ancient and powerful extension of the simple math of least common multiples.

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The Mathematician Who Delights in Building Bridges

November 17, 2021

Ana Caraiani seeks to unify mathematics through her work on the ambitious Langlands program.

How Quantum Computers Will Correct Their Errors

November 16, 2021

Quantum bits are fussy and fragile. Useful quantum computers will need to use an error-correction technique like the one that was recently demonstrated on a real machine.

To Be Energy-Efficient, Brains Predict Their Perceptions

November 15, 2021

Results from neural networks support the idea that brains are “prediction machines” — and that they work that way to conserve energy.

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