By using “classical shadows,” ordinary computers can beat quantum computers at the tricky task of understanding quantum behaviors.

Because tree seedlings don’t grow as well when close to their parents, more tree species can be packed into tropical forests.

On its surface, the Kakeya conjecture is a simple statement about rotating needles. But it underlies a wealth of mathematics.

Measurement and entanglement both have a “spooky” nonlocal flavor to them. Now physicists are harnessing that nonlocality to probe the spread of quantum information and control it.

A new proof breaks a decades-long drought of progress on the problem of estimating the size of triangles created by cramming points into a square.

Scientists have struggled to accurately forecast the strength of the sun’s 11-year cycle — even after centuries of solar observations.

The preferred “handedness” of biomolecules could have emerged from biased interactions between electrons and magnetic surfaces, new research suggests.

Mathematical proofs based on a technique called diagonalization can be relentlessly contrarian, but they help reveal the limits of algorithms.

Number theorist Andrew Granville on what mathematics really is — and why objectivity is never quite within reach.