Abstractions blog

A problem confronts cosmology: Two independent measurements of the universe’s expansion give incompatible answers. Now a third method, advanced by an astronomy pioneer, appears to bridge the divide.

Faced with a decision, the brain weighs its options by bundling them into rapidly alternating cycles of brain waves.

A recent neutron star merger has defied astronomers’ expectations, leading them to question longstanding ideas about neutron stars and the supernovas that create them. “We have to go back to the drawing board.”

For decades, scientists have been intrigued by tiny viruses whose genetic material can be read both forward and backward. New research begins to explain this puzzling property.

Mathematicians have studied knots for centuries, but a new material is showing why some knots are better than others.

A photograph of the infant cosmos reveals the precise amounts of dark matter and dark energy in the universe, leaving precious little room for argument.

The glial cells of the nervous system have been eclipsed in importance by neurons for decades. But glia are turning out to be central to many neurological functions, including pain perception.

A curious physicist has discovered an unexpected link between theoretical block collisions and a famed quantum search algorithm.

A startling experimental discovery about how fluids behave started a wave of important mathematical proofs.