Math
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Math
See how fractals forever changed math and science
Over the last half 50 years, fractals have challenged ideas about geometry and pushed math, science and technology into unexpected areas.
- Computing
There’s no cheating this random number generator
From jury duty to tax audits, randomness plays a big role. Scientists used quantum physics to build a system that ensures those number draws can’t be gamed.
- 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.
- Math
The einstein tile rocked mathematics. Meet its molecular cousin
Chemists identify a single molecule that naturally tiles in nonrepeating patterns, which could help build materials with novel electronic properties.
- Math
Two teenagers have once again proved an ancient math rule
Ne’Kiya Jackson and Calcea Johnson have published 10 trigonometric proofs of the Pythagorean theorem, a feat thought impossible for 2,000 years.
- Math
This intricate maze connects the dots on quasicrystal surfaces
The winding loop touches every point without crossing itself and could help make a unique class of atomic structures more efficient catalysts, scientists say.
- Math
Scientists find a naturally occurring molecule that forms a fractal
The protein assembles itself into a repeating triangle pattern. The fractal seems to be an accident of evolution, scientists say.
- Math
How two outsiders tackled the mystery of arithmetic progressions
Computer scientists made progress on a decades-old puzzle in a subfield of mathematics known as combinatorics.
- Physics
A predicted quasicrystal is based on the ‘einstein’ tile known as the hat
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.
- Physics
Here’s how much fruit you can take from a display before it collapses
About 10 percent of the fruit in a tilted market display can be removed before it all crashes down, computer simulations show.
- Math
Here are some astounding scientific firsts of 2023
Notable feats include discovering a planet-eating star, extracting RNA from an extinct animal and more.
- Math
‘Is Math Real?’ asks simple questions to explore math’s deepest truths
In her latest book, mathematician Eugenia Cheng invites readers to see math as more than just right or wrong answers.
