E. Klarreich
The mathematics used to describe diffusion can also be used to generate maps based on population data.
E. Klarreich
June 12, 2004
In April, an eBay auction offered math enthusiasts the rare opportunity of linking their names with one of the most famous mathematicians of the 20th century.
E. Klarreich
May 15, 2004
Mathematicians and historians piece together a puzzle that Archimedes pondered.
E. Klarreich
February 28, 2004
Coin tossing is inherently biased, with the coin more likely to land on the same face it started on.
E. Klarreich
February 21, 2004
Plants in which large numbers of simple units interact with one another appear to compute how to coordinate the actions of their cells effectively.
P. Weiss
February 14, 2004
Squashed or stretched versions of spheres snuggle together more tightly than randomly packed spheres do.
E. Klarreich
December 20, 2003
Statistical tests are unraveling knotty literary mysteries.
P. Weiss
August 16, 2003
A year after self-publishing a best-selling book in which he proposes a new framework for doing science, Stephen Wolfram is taking new steps to transform science.
E. Klarreich
June 28, 2003
The current U.S. Supreme Court of nine judges behaves as if it were made up of 4.68 "ideal" justices who make their decisions completely independently.
E. Klarreich
June 14, 2003
A Russian mathematician has proposed a proof of the Poincaré conjecture, a question about the shapes of three-dimensional spaces.
E. Klarreich
April 26, 2003
Computer circuits made of genes may soon program bacteria.
E. Klarreich
March 29, 2003
Mathematicians have taken a significant step toward proving the twin-prime conjecture by simplifying formulas for estimating the average spacing of primes.
E. Klarreich
February 22, 2003
A quantum version of braids could lay the groundwork for tomorrow's computers.
I. Peterson
Dec. 21 & 28, 2002
Putting a passion for mathematics on stage
I. Peterson
October 26, 2002
Constructing an efficient prime number detector
I. Peterson
Aug. 17, 2002
Simple puzzles can give computers an unexpectedly strenuous workout
B. Bower
June 22, 2002
Babies' ballyhooed counting skills add up to controversy.
I. Peterson
May 11, 2002
Automating the restoration of a picture's missing pieces
I. Peterson
April 7, 2002
Applying mathematics to the efficient delivery of Internet content.
I. Peterson
Dec. 22, 2001
Mathematician and artist George Hart has created a variety of sculptures
based on polyhedra and collaborated with other researchers to define and
visualize new geometric shapes.
I. Peterson
Nov. 17, 2001
How to trick other people's computers into solving your math problems.
I. Peterson
Sept. 1, 2001
Mathematicians tackle the seeming randomness of pi's digits
B. Bower
June 30, 2001
In a study of college students, high levels of anxiety about taking
mathematics tests interfered with memory processes needed to perform difficult
arithmetic problems.
I. Peterson
April 21, 2001
Packing circles within a circle turns a mathematical surprise
I. Peterson
December 23&30, 2000
Tiling a hyperbolic floor inspires both mathematics and art.
I. Peterson
November 11, 2000
Ant teamwork suggests models for computing faster and organizing
better.
I. Peterson
September 23, 2000
Ingenious proof settles a wickedly prickly question about unfurling
crinkly polygons.
I. Peterson
August 26, 2000
A quantum computation involving a custom-built molecule furnishes
experimental evidence that a quantum computer can determine the order of a permutation more efficiently than can a conventional computer.
I. Peterson
August 12, 2000
Adventurous voyages to Antarctica test mathematical models of sea ice.
I. Peterson
June 17, 2000
Writing a whole number as the sum of smaller numbers springs a
mathematical surprise.
I. Peterson
May 6, 2000
Untangling a web of conflicting demands can be tough on computers.
J. Travis
March 18, 2000
A project on encrypting words within a strand of DNA won the top prize at the Intel Science Talent Search.
I. Peterson
March 4, 2000
From sifting through radio telescope signals for signs of
extraterrestrial life to searching for record-breaking prime numbers,
home and office computers contribute via the Internet to a variety of
research efforts.
P. Weiss
February 19, 2000
Inspired by recent theoretical insights, physicists at accelerators
and in gravitational laboratories are searching for clues to dimensions beyond the four dimensions of space-time.
I. Peterson
January 1, 2000
A team of researchers demonstrates that there may be much more to the art of Marcel Duchamp than meets the casual, or even critical, eye.
O. Baker
November 27, 1999
Borrowing techniques from statistical mechanics, quantum theory, and particle physics, researchers are trying to divine undiscovered laws of finance.
I. Peterson
November 20, 1999
Theorists studying quantum computation offer new perspectives on coin tossing, chess, and game theory.
J. Travis
November 6, 1999
Basketball teams that have to travel across three time zones to play face twice the risk of being upset in the first round of NCAA tournaments.
I. Peterson
July 24, 1999
A hexagonal grid represents the best way to divide a flat surface into regions of equal area with the least total perimeter.
P. Weiss
July 3, 1999
Researchers are using controversial new models and computer simulations to study roadway congestion and try to control traffic.
I. Peterson
June 12, 1999
Introducing an element of randomness into a common mathematical sequence gives rise to a surprising relationship.
B. Bower
May 29, 1999
Decision strategies that hinge on mere bits of well-chosen information about one's surroundings and circumstances prove surprisingly powerful.
P. Weiss
May 15, 1999
At the 50th annual International Science and Engineering Fair, now sponsored by Intel, high-school scientists won top scholarships for projects on tumor cells, viruses, and math theorems.
I. Peterson
April 10, 1999
Applied mathematicians use novel computer methods based on mathematical structures called level sets to model complex behavior at interfaces.
I. Peterson
March 6, 1999
To obtain a more accurate enumeration in the year 2000, the Census Bureau has proposed integrating the results of conventional counting techniques with the results of a large sample survey of the population, but others want to stick with the straight count.
I. Peterson
March 6, 1999
Researchers have developed the first computational model that captures how one protein strand can interfere with the folding of another.
I. Peterson
January 2, 1999
Researchers are exploring how to enhance the usefulness of computer programs called intelligent agents by making them autonomous, mobile, and capable of learning.
I. Peterson
October 10, 1998
Mathematicians have worked out a geometrically optimal transformation that minimizes the energy required to exchange a sphere's inside and outside surfaces.
I. Peterson
August 15, 1998
Mathematicians have proved Kepler's assertion that the pattern of neatly stacked oranges in a grocery "face-centered cubic packing of identical spheres" fills space more efficiently than any other arrangement.
I. Peterson
July 18, 1998
Researchers strive to create a computer program that plays championship poker.
I. Peterson
May 2, 1998
A combination of text and link analysis underlies a novel method for automatically generating lists of authoritative Web resources.
S. Milius
March 14, 1998
The top winners in the 1998 Westinghouse Science Talent Search are students from Indiana, Arizona, and New York.
S. Milius
February 28, 1998
A mathematical model of elastic rods can be used to describe coiled vine tendrils and kinky phone cords.
I. Peterson
February 21, 1998
Evidence of a finite, multiply connected universe may show up in microwave data from future spacecraft.
I. Peterson
November 15, 1997
A proof of a conjecture related to Fermat's last theorem would earn $50,000.
I. Peterson
October 11, 1997
Despite strong support from statisticians, the Census Bureau's plan to increase the use of sampling in the next census has met resistance in Congress.
I. Peterson
September 13, 1997
A participant in the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search discovered the largest known prime number, an 895,932-digit behemoth.
I. Peterson
August 2, 1997
Researchers and software developers have used a variety of strategies to bring computer programs that play games, including chess, checkers, backgammon, bridge, Go, and Scrabble, to the expert level.
I. Peterson
July 26, 1997
Frequent spikes of high activity occurring at random times and typically lasting a fraction of a second punctuate Internet traffic.
I. Peterson
July 5, 1997
The mathematics of lattices offers an alternative basis for a public-key cryptosystem.
I. Peterson
June 28, 1997
By carefully choosing how a message is encoded and decoded, it's possible to approach the theoretical maximum for transmitting information via photons or other quantum particles.
I. Peterson
June 14, 1997
Quantum computations, in theory, can be speeded up significantly by letting many quantum computers work together on data encoded as particles in an entangled quantum state.
B. Bower
June 7, 1997
A growing number of psychologists charge that their field needs to wean itself from the mindless application of certain statistical practices, especially a technique known as null hypothesis testing, and pursue different methods of exploring mind and behavior.
I. Peterson
March 1, 1997
I. Peterson
February 1, 1997
Tampering with a smart card can force it into making errors in the calculations used for encrypting data, potentially allowing the code to be broken.
B. Bower
January 25, 1997
Students at ultraorthodox Jewish schools, who study mainly holy texts, outperform most students at mainstream schools on tests of geometric reasoning, perhaps because of the emphasis on reflection and considering different perspectives.
I. Peterson
November 23, 1996
Computer simulations furnish a means of gleaning insights into human social and economic behavior.
I. Peterson
November 23, 1996
Ocean currents and large fields of random eddies can focus a steady ocean swell to create unusually large waves.
J. Raloff
October 19, 1996
A National Science Foundation report finds no one at the helm of U.S. science and math education, with the result that students are exposed to smatterings of topics that vary regionally and encourage little in-depth learning.
I. Peterson
October 12, 1996
A novel pattern made up of overlapping, 10-sided tiles may serve as a model of how atoms arrange themselves into a quasicrystalline structure.
I. Peterson
October 12, 1996
Patterns of circles and triangles surreptitiously flattened into the crops of southern England reveal the perpetrators' sophisticated knowledge of Euclidean geometry.
I. Peterson
August 31, 1996
A novel algorithm that takes advantage of quantum logic provides, in principle, a faster way to identify a particular item in an unsorted list.
I. Peterson
May 4, 1996
Researchers turn to the mathematics of cake cutting and point allocation to develop improved methods for people to use to settle disputes.
I. Peterson
March 30, 1996
R. Lipkin
October 14, 1995
I. Peterson
April 25, 1995
I. Peterson
April 15, 1995
I. Peterson
March 25, 1995