In-depth news about mathematics, physics, biology and computer science.
Spiders appear to offload cognitive tasks to their webs, making them one of a number of species with a mind that isn’t fully confined within the head.
Powerful new quantitative tools are now available to combat partisan bias in the drawing of voting districts.
When a German retiree proved a famous long-standing mathematical conjecture, the response was underwhelming.
For decades, researchers believed that violent supernovas forged gold and other heavy elements. But many now argue for a different cosmic quarry.
The ancient creatures who first crawled onto land may have been lured by the informational benefit that comes from seeing through air.
For centuries, mathematicians tried to solve problems by adding new values to the usual numbers. Now they’re investigating the unintended consequences of that tinkering.
Powerful new experiments have uncovered some of the molecular underpinnings of sleep.
Physicists are closing the door on an intriguing loophole around the quantum phenomenon Einstein called “spooky action at a distance.”
The ancient Greeks argued that the best life was filled with beauty, truth, justice, play and love. The mathematician Francis Su knows just where to find them.
Researchers have discovered that simple “chemically active” droplets grow to the size of cells and spontaneously divide, suggesting they might have evolved into the first living cells.
