Math

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

More Stories in Math

  1. Particle Physics

    To understand black holes, physicists turn to a mathematical ‘Rosetta stone’

    A link between particle physics and gravity equations, called the double copy, applies to Hawking radiation, creating a new way into black hole puzzles.

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  2. Math

    The Proof in the Code traces efforts to digitally verify mathematical truths

    Journalist Kevin Hartnett chronicles how code-checking tools and AI are being used to tackle difficult math problems.

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  3. Math

    Math long resisted a digital disruption. AI is poised to change that

    The painstaking process of formalization to verify proofs is starting to surge thanks to AI. That could radically change the way people do math.

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  4. Math

    Huge Numbers tackles mathematics at its most incomprehensibly large

    Mathematician Richard Elwes surveys googology, the study of enormous numbers, in a new book.

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  5. Chemistry

    This molecule puts a new twist on the Möbius strip

    A molecule made of carbon and chlorine is half as twisty as the paper loops common in math classes.

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  6. Neuroscience

    Why is math harder for some kids? Brain scans offer clues

    Kids with math learning disabilities process number symbols differently than quantities shown as dots — and it shows up in MRIs.

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  7. Physics

    Physicists dream up ‘spacetime quasicrystals’ that could underpin the universe

    Quasicrystals are orderly structures that never repeat. Scientists just showed they can exist in space and time.

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  8. Archaeology

    This ancient pottery holds the earliest evidence of humans doing math

    Flower designs on 8,000-year-old Mesopotamian pots reveal a “mathematical knowledge” perhaps developed to share land and crops, archaeologists say.

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  9. Physics

    There’s math behind this maddening golf mishap

    Math and physics explain the anguish of a golf ball that zings around the rim of the hole instead of falling in.

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