Latest Articles

How to Build a Big Prime Number

July 13, 2023

A new algorithm brings together the advantages of randomness and deterministic processes to reliably construct large prime numbers.

Can Math and Physics Save an Arrhythmic Heart?

July 12, 2023

Abnormal waves of electrical activity can cause a heart’s muscle cells to beat out of sync. In this episode, Flavio Fenton, an expert in cardiac dynamics, talks with Steve Strogatz about ways to treat heart arrhythmias without resorting to painful defibrillators.

In a Fierce Desert, Microbe ‘Crusts’ Show How Life Tamed the Land

July 12, 2023

Extreme microorganisms carpeting the Atacama Desert in Chile illuminate how life might have first taken hold on Earth’s surface.

New Proof Threads the Needle on a Sticky Geometry Problem

July 11, 2023

A new proof marks major progress toward solving the Kakeya conjecture, a deceptively simple question that underpins a tower of conjectures.

Q&A

The Physicist Who’s Challenging the Quantum Orthodoxy

July 10, 2023

For decades, physicists have struggled to develop a quantum theory of gravity. But what if gravity — and space-time — are fundamentally classical?

The Lawlessness of Large Numbers

July 7, 2023

Mathematicians can often figure out what happens as quantities grow infinitely large. What about when they are just a little big?

Elliptic Curves Yield Their Secrets in a New Number System

July 6, 2023

Ana Caraiani and James Newton have extended an important result in number theory to the imaginary realm.

Microbes Gained Photosynthesis Superpowers From a ‘Proton Pump’

July 5, 2023

New research reveals how marine microbes use an extra membrane that once had digestive functions to boost their yield from photosynthesis.

A New Map of the Universe, Painted With Cosmic Neutrinos

June 29, 2023

Physicists finally know where at least some of these high-energy particles come from, which helps make the neutrinos useful for exploring fundamental physics.

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