Steve Nadis

Contributing Writer

Latest Articles

Undergraduate Upends a 40-Year-Old Data Science Conjecture

February 10, 2025

A young computer scientist and two colleagues show that searches within data structures called hash tables can be much faster than previously deemed possible.

Cosmologists Try a New Way to Measure the Shape of the Universe

January 27, 2025

Is the universe flat and infinite, or something more complex? We can’t say for sure, but a new search strategy is mapping out the subtle signals that could reveal if the universe has a shape.

New Book-Sorting Algorithm Almost Reaches Perfection

January 24, 2025

The library sorting problem is used across computer science for organizing far more than just books. A new solution is less than a page-width away from the theoretical ideal.

Novel Architecture Makes Neural Networks More Understandable

September 11, 2024

By tapping into a decades-old mathematical principle, researchers are hoping that Kolmogorov-Arnold networks will facilitate scientific discovery.

Mathematicians Prove Hawking Wrong About the Most Extreme Black Holes

August 21, 2024

For decades, extremal black holes were considered mathematically impossible. A new proof reveals otherwise.

Diminishing Dark Energy May Evade the ‘Swampland’ of Impossible Universes

August 19, 2024

The largest-ever 3D map of the cosmos hints that the dark energy that’s fueling the universe’s expansion may be weakening. One community of theoretical physicists expected as much.

Mathematicians Attempt to Glimpse Past the Big Bang

May 31, 2024

By studying the geometry of model space-times, researchers offer alternative views of the universe’s first moments.

Computer Scientists Invent an Efficient New Way to Count

May 16, 2024

By making use of randomness, a team has created a simple algorithm for estimating large numbers of distinct objects in a stream of data.

Game Theory Can Make AI More Correct and Efficient

May 9, 2024

Researchers are drawing on ideas from game theory to improve large language models and make them more consistent.

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