Abstractions blog

Plants ignore the most energy-rich part of sunlight because stability matters more than efficiency, according to a new model of photosynthesis.

Modified gravity theories have never been able to describe the universe’s first light. A new formulation does.

Why do mathematicians enjoy proving the same results in different ways?

Earth’s climate has fluctuated through deep time, pushed by these 10 different causes. Here’s how each compares with modern climate change.

His incompleteness theorems destroyed the search for a mathematical theory of everything. Nearly a century later, we’re still coming to grips with the consequences.

Researchers are one step closer to injecting probability into deterministic machines.

At the molecular level, glass looks like a liquid. But an artificial neural network has picked up on hidden structure in its molecules that may explain why glass is rigid like a solid.

The heartbeat and other bodily processes play a surprising role in shaping perception and cognition.

Cosmic rays may have given right-handed genetic helixes an evolutionary edge at the beginning of life’s history.