Column

  1. Astronomy

    Accidental astrophysicists

    MATH TREK: The mathematicians thought they'd just extended a fundamental result in algebra, but it turns out that they'd also proven a conjecture in astrophysics.

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  2. Challenges to building a disaster-resilient nation

    Comment from David Applegate, chair of the National Science and Technology Council's Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction and senior science adviser for earthquake and geologic hazards at the U.S.Geological Survey.

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  3. Math

    Gender equality closes math gap

    Research shows that the greater the gender equality in a country, the more equal the math scores between boys and girls.

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  4. Math

    Communities of Communities of …

    A new approach to network theory focusing on the subcommunities within networks may shed light on everything from food webs to terrorist cells. It may even act as an oracle, helping scientists identify connections within a network they haven’t yet seen.

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  5. U.S. science policy needs to heed global realities

    Comment by Steven Hyman, provost of Harvard University

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  6. Math

    Detangling DNA

    DNA can form some very nasty knots — but not just any knots.

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  7. Math

    The squint method of data analysis

    Mathematicians discover a Klein bottle hidden within the data underlying photographs

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  8. Physics

    John Wheeler (1911-2008)

    SN Editor in Chief Tom Siegfried remembers the late physicist John Wheeler, who coined the term "black hole" in 1967, with excerpts from conversations the two had engaged in over the past two decades.

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  9. Math

    Sensitivity to the harmony of things

    The work of Alexandre Grothendieck has transformed math the way the Internet has transformed communication: Once you’re used to it, you can’t imagine what life was like before it.

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  10. Math

    Insights into symmetry

    This year's Abel Prize goes to mathematicians involved in group theory.

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  11. Math

    Still debating with Plato

    Mathematicians debate whether mathematical truths are discovered or invented.

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  12. Science & Society

    Science Education and the Future of Humankind

    Nobel Prize–winning physicist Leon Lederman warns that science education is crucial for humankind’s future. Lederman is director emeritus of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

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