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Predicting Eclipses: The Three Body Problem

Solar eclipse prediction has driven innovation across the history of science and mathematics, from the Saros cycle to Greek geometry to Newton’s calculus to the three-body problem.


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Jessica Flack: How Nature Solves Problems Through Computation

August 9, 2017

Jessica Flack describes the special challenges of applying collective computation to the understanding of complex biological systems.

Purvesh Khatri: More Data — the Dirtier the Better

July 19, 2017

Purvesh Khatri learned that by working with ‘messy’ clinical data sets, he could find genes that the human body expresses in response to diverse forms of a disease.

Journey to the Birth of the Solar System

May 25, 2017

Join David Kaplan on a virtual-reality tour showing how the sun, the Earth and the other planets came to be.

Tim Maudlin: A Defense of the Reality of Time

May 16, 2017

Tim Maudlin explains how math has led physicists to believe some very strange things about the nature of time.

John Novembre: A Map of Human History, Hidden in DNA

April 20, 2017

John Novembre explains how he uses genomic data to map human history.

Sharon Glotzer: ‘Digital Alchemist’ Seeks Rules of Emergence

March 8, 2017

Sharon Glotzer explains how emergence, entropy and order can all fit together.

Sylvia Serfaty: In Mathematics, ‘You Cannot Be Lied To’

February 21, 2017

Sylvia Serfaty explains why you don’t have to be a genius to become a mathematician.

Francis Su: Math and the Good Life

February 2, 2017

Francis Su explains how mathematics can help a person to live well.

Francis Su: Math Is for Everybody

February 2, 2017

Francis Su discusses how the community of mathematicians tends to exclude certain people.