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Solution: ‘Evolutionary Math and Just-So Stories’
...problem, I presented three population structures based on John Rennie’s article “Mathematics Shows How to Ensure Evolution,” which described a mathematical study that used graph theory to show how certain...
The Strange Numbers That Birthed Modern Algebra
The 19th-century discovery of numbers called “quaternions” gave mathematicians a way to describe rotations in space, forever changing physics and math. Imagine winding the hour hand of a clock back...
Tinkertoy Models Produce New Geometric Insights
...sticklike models — mathematicians have gained a new sense of how those properties behave. For more than 100 years, mathematicians have investigated a fact about geometric objects that is so...
The New Science of Seeing Around Corners
...a number of nascent labs around the country. Since then, a stream of new insights and mathematical tricks has been making non-line-of-sight imaging ever more powerful and practical. Along with...
The End of Theoretical Physics as We Know It
...With quantum simulations, the mathematical model is of secondary relevance. We currently use the math to identify a suitable system because the math tells us what properties we should look...
The Universal Pattern Popping Up in Math, Physics and Biology
...series dives deep into math and physics theories, kicking off with ‘universality,’ a phenomenon that reveals underlying mathematical connections in the world,” Driscoll wrote in an email. “Depicting universality on...
How Network Math Can Help You Make Friends
...new ideas join the network, they connect us all to the mathematics of the past as well as the future. So when it comes to mathematics, just as in friendships,...
Evolutionary Math and Just-So Stories
Evolutionary stories like the grandmother hypothesis are easy to construct from mathematical models, but how well do they reflect reality? The story of Darwin’s finches — the species of birds...
A Number Theorist Who Bridges Math and Time
...the idea of Olympiads,” he said. “I think if that was what mathematicians really did, I wouldn’t enjoy being a mathematician.” Mathematics is a comparatively straightforward subject in which to...