Computer Software Could Crack Centuries-Old Math Puzzle By Christopher Rasmussen Mathematicians have known how to solve something called an S-unit equation for several years. However, the process is so convoluted that few can actually use it to tackle their problems.
Physicists Stuffed a Ghostly 'Skyrmion' Full of 'Antiskyrmions' By Rafi Letzter The ghostly 'quasiparticles' have barely any material existence, but physicists are still managing to manipulate them into uncanny shapes.
Airplane Wing Assembles Like a Jigsaw Puzzle and Can Morph Into Any Shape By Stephanie Pappas The new wing could make for lighter, more efficient airplanes.
Here's What the Speed of Light Looks Like in Slow Motion By Brandon Specktor What does the speed of light look like? CalTech researchers built the world's fastest camera to find out.
Extreme, Hydrogen-Crushing Physicists Are Pushing Us into a 'New Era of Superconductivity' By Rafi Letzter Lanthanum, diamond crushers and advanced computer models are changing the hunt for this extreme quantum mechanical effect.
What Is Cryptocurrency? By Greg Uyeno Cryptocurrencies aren't just alternatives to government-issued forms of money. Most of them are designed to be very different
AI Is Good (Perhaps Too Good) at Predicting Who Will Die Prematurely By Mindy Weisberger Medical researchers have unlocked an unsettling ability in artificial intelligence.
Defying Laws of Nature, Scientists Force 'Supercrystals' Into Existence By Rafi Letzter A team of physicists used lasers to create "supercrystals," even as the structures fought to not exist at all.
Karen Uhlenbeck Just Won One of Math's Most Prestigious Prizes. Here's Why Her Work Is So Important. By Yasemin Saplakoglu Her work has led to some of the most important advances in math in the last 40 years.
Truly Spooky: How Ghostly Quantum Particles Fly Through Barriers Almost Instantly By Mindy Weisberger Scientists recently unraveled a physics puzzle that has stymied experts since the dawn of quantum mechanics.
Physicists May Have Found a Way to 'Untangle' Information Trapped in a Black Hole By Adam Mann Scrambled particles provide a window into a black hole's heart.
This Glass Seemed to Break the Laws of Electricity — Here's What Really Happened By Rafi Letzter The glass shouldn't have boiled. But it did. Physicists had to figure out why that wasn't against the laws of physics.
Here's the Science Behind Finding North Korea's Nuclear Weapons By Stephanie Pappas Remote monitoring can reveal a lot.
Physicists Just Solved a 35-Year-Old Mystery Hidden Inside Atomic Cores By Rafi Letzter The quarks inside atoms move slower than the quarks inside free-floating protons and neutrons. But why?
A 12-Year-Old Built a Fusion Reactor in His Playroom By Rafi Letzter A 12-year-old kid from Tennessee created a nuclear reaction in his family's playroom. Here's how he did it.
Microwaved Grapes Spit Plasma, and Scientists Finally Know Why By Mindy Weisberger Why do grapes ignite when you microwave them? At long last, science has an answer.
Hawaii's False Missile Alert Shows Americans Have No Idea What to Do in Nuclear Attack By Jeanna Bryner An erroneous alert about a nuclear attack was sent to Hawaii residents. The ensuing confusion and hysteria revealed that Americans are not prepared.
Japan Just Shot a Fake Asteroid with a Space Bullet … for Science By Meghan Bartels Say you need to prepare to shoot bullets into an asteroid and suck up the debris kicked up from the blast, then tuck it away for safekeeping.
AI Sucks at Making Adorable Cat Photos, Clearly Misses the Entire Point of the Internet By Mindy Weisberger When neural networks attempted to create images of cats, the results were cat-astrophic.
Gorgeous Fractal Patterns, Normally Found Only in Nature, Re-Created Using Laser Light By Yasemin Saplakoglu A human-made thing created a very beautiful, natural pattern.
