You are looking for
Advanced search
Treading Softly in a Connected World
...mathematics behind what he calls “the extreme fragility of interdependency.” In a system of interconnected networks like the economy, city infrastructure or the human body, their model indicates that a...
Topologists Tackle the Trouble With Poll Placement
...to each different polling site,” said Topaz. Porter notes that mathematicians have had success using sophisticated mathematical techniques to quantify gerrymandering, the deliberate skewing of legislative districts. He sees the...
Geometers Engineer New Tools to Wrangle Spacecraft Orbits
...to planetary motion, but felt out of his depth mathematically. “It was really exciting to see the mathematicians trying to bring their expertise down into the engineering side,” he said....
When Data Is Missing, Scientists Guess. Then Guess Again.
...Harvard University, he was told he could not skip the psychology department’s required math courses. Feeling that he’d already covered the material in college, he switched to computer science, completing...
A Bird’s-Eye View of Nature’s Hidden Order
...useful. From a mathematical standpoint, “the more you study it, the more elegant and conceptually compelling it seems,” said Henry Cohn, a mathematician and packing expert at Microsoft Research New...
Genetic Engineering to Clash With Evolution
...could be an important natural safety feature. Evolution is unpredictable by its very nature, but a handful of biologists are using mathematical models and careful lab experiments to try to...
How to Cut Cake Fairly and Finally Eat It Too
...related Abstractions post: All Is Not Fair in Cake-Cutting and Math Over the past 50 years, many mathematicians and computer scientists, including Procaccia, had convinced themselves that there was probably...
A Fight to Fix Geometry’s Foundations
...the practice of mathematics. “There are two conceptions of mathematics,” Abouzaid said. “There’s mathematics as: The currency of mathematics is ideas. And there’s mathematics as: The currency of mathematics is...
‘Digital Alchemist’ Seeks Rules of Emergence
...joined an experimental lab. I spent the whole year basically designing a flange for a sputtering chamber. I was not inspired. I like puzzles, I like computers, I like math....