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Tim Maudlin: A Defense of the Reality of Time
Tim Maudlin explains how math has led physicists to believe some very strange things about the nature of time. Edwin Tse for Quanta Magazine...
A Defense of the Reality of Time
...reality. Change is real, as opposed to an illusion or an artifact of perspective. The laws of physics act within time to generate each moment. Mixing mathematics, physics and philosophy,...
A Theory of Reality as More Than the Sum of Its Parts
New math shows how, contrary to conventional scientific wisdom, conscious beings and other macroscopic entities might have greater influence over the future than does the sum of their microscopic components....
Solution: ‘Why Are There Two Sexes?’
The mathematical concept of parity and the fatal flaw of serial multiplication can help explain why having two sexes usually works better than having one or three. Our July Insights...
The Prime Rib Problem
...of $1 million from the Clay Mathematics Institute, and which some physicists are attacking using quantum mechanics. Primes invoke in mathematicians a deep sense of awe and continue to inspire...
Choosy Eggs May Pick Sperm for Their Genes, Defying Mendel’s Law
...such heterozygote males and females, they found that none of the offspring lacked both copies of DDX1, even though simple Mendelian math would suggest 25 percent of them should. Given...
Bacteria Sacrifice DNA Repair for Better RNA
...directly altering a cell’s enzymatic activity but through a domino effect that leaves other, unrelated proteins unable to function right. Researchers have been doing the math wrong when thinking about...
Physicists Aim to Classify All Possible Phases of Matter
...by quantum field theories — mathematical descriptions that treat the particles’ environments as smooth. “These tensor categories are conjectured to cover all 2-D phases, but there is no mathematical proof...
How Einstein Lost His Bearings, and With Them, General Relativity
By 1913, Albert Einstein had nearly completed general relativity. But a simple mistake set him on a tortured, two-year reconsideration of his theory. Today, mathematicians still grapple with the issues...