Latest Articles

The Secret Math Behind Mind-Reading Magic Tricks

May 27, 2022

Four puzzle solutions reveal different ways to divine someone’s hidden number with impossibly little information.

Physicists Rewrite the Fundamental Law That Leads to Disorder

May 26, 2022

The second law of thermodynamics is among the most sacred in all of science, but it has always rested on 19th century arguments about probability. New arguments trace its true source to the flows of quantum information.

Why Claude Shannon Would Have Been Great at Wordle

May 25, 2022

A bit of information theory can help you analyze — and improve — your Wordle game.

Life’s First Peptides May Have Grown on RNA Strands

May 24, 2022

RNA and peptides coevolving in the primordial world might have jointly served as a precursor to the modern ribosome.

Simple Gene Circuits Hint at How Stem Cells Find New Identities

May 19, 2022

Synthetic biology experiments suggest a “MultiFate” model for how genetically identical cells become the many different types found in complex organisms like us.

Will the James Webb Space Telescope Reveal Another Earth?

May 18, 2022

The space telescope is one of the most ambitious scientific projects ever undertaken. Marcia Rieke and Nikole Lewis, two of the scientists leading JWST investigations, talk to Steven Strogatz about how it may transform our understanding of the universe.

How Complex Is a Knot? New Proof Reveals Ranking System That Works.

May 18, 2022

“Ribbon concordance” will let mathematicians compare knots by linking them across four-dimensional space.

Q&A

How to Write Software With Mathematical Perfection

May 17, 2022

Leslie Lamport revolutionized how computers talk to each other. Now he’s working on how engineers talk to their machines.

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