
Plants
A leaf’s geometry determines whether it falls far from its tree
Shape and symmetry help determine where a leaf lands — and if the tree it came from can recoup the leaf’s carbon as it decomposes.
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Shape and symmetry help determine where a leaf lands — and if the tree it came from can recoup the leaf’s carbon as it decomposes.
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
The winding loop touches every point without crossing itself and could help make a unique class of atomic structures more efficient catalysts, scientists say.
The protein assembles itself into a repeating triangle pattern. The fractal seems to be an accident of evolution, scientists say.
Computer scientists made progress on a decades-old puzzle in a subfield of mathematics known as combinatorics.
The einstein tile can cover an infinite plane only with a nonrepeating pattern. A material based on it has features of both crystals and quasicrystals.
About 10 percent of the fruit in a tilted market display can be removed before it all crashes down, computer simulations show.
Notable feats include discovering a planet-eating star, extracting RNA from an extinct animal and more.
In her latest book, mathematician Eugenia Cheng invites readers to see math as more than just right or wrong answers.
Playing with paper and scissors helped one mathematician figure out just how short the twisted loops can be.
Focusing on the relationship between math and culture can boost student learning and expand mathematical knowledge, researchers say.
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