Chaos theory

In new computer experiments, artificial-intelligence algorithms can tell the future of chaotic systems.

Complex natural systems defy analysis using a standard mathematical toolkit, so one ecologist is throwing out the equations.

Nature has revealed peculiar mathematical objects that connect order and chaos.

Artur Avila’s solutions to ubiquitous problems in chaos theory have “changed the face of the field,” earning him Brazil’s first Fields Medal.

Newly discovered patterns in evolution may help scientists make accurate short-term predictions.

Surprising oil drop experiments suggest that the quantum world may not be as strange as advertised.

Support is growing for a decades-old physics idea suggesting that localized episodes of disordered brain activity help keep the overall system in healthy balance.

A daring speculation offers a potential way forward in one of the great unsolved problems of mathematics: the behavior of the Navier-Stokes equations for fluid flow.

By investigating the central role played by knots in fluids and fields, physicists hope to unravel long-standing mysteries of turbulence.