The Oceans Are Going to Rise—but When?
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. In May 2014, NASA announced at a press…
Game Theory Explains How Algorithms Can Drive Up Prices
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Imagine a town with two widget merchants. Customers…
The Hidden Math of Ocean Waves
In 2011, Deconinck and Oliveras simulated different disturbances with higher and higher frequencies and watched what happened to…
The ‘10 Martini’ Proof Connects Quantum Mechanics With Infinitely Intricate Mathematical Structures
But in some ways, the proof was a bit unsatisfying. Jitomirskaya and Avila had used a method that…
AI Is Designing Bizarre New Physics Experiments That Actually Work
“LIGO is this huge thing that thousands of people have been thinking about deeply for 40 years,” said…
The Hunt for a Fundamental Theory of Quantum Gravity
The world of Bousso’s new theorem still departs from our universe in notable ways. For mathematical convenience, he…
For Algorithms, Memory Is a Far More Powerful Resource Than Time
That classic result was a way to transform any algorithm with a given time budget into a new…
How the Binding of Two Brain Molecules Creates Memories That Last a Lifetime
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. When Todd Sacktor was about to turn 3,…
Student Solves a Long-Standing Problem About the Limits of Addition
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. The simplest ideas in mathematics can also be…
How the Universe and Its Mirrored Version Are Different
Kitty couldn’t have digested looking-glass milk. Worse, if it had contained any bacteria with the opposite handedness, her…