How Mathematicians Cracked the Zodiac Killer’s Cipher
In the late 1960s, a serial killer self-identifying as “the Zodiac” killed at least five people in Northern California and…
Month: December 2021
Genes point to how some bacteria can gobble up electricity
Bacteria can have superpowers. Some flourish in almost any environment. Others can transform toxic materials into harmless sludge. A bacterium…
AI, Explain Thyself
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 20, 2021 The past decade has seen machine learning—finding patterns in vast piles of data—in a state of…
Bringing Out the Dead
One bright morning in November 2018, state biologists in Louisiana loaded three dead and toothy alligators, each more than 5…
Cold plasma and the farms of the future
Physicist Stephan Reuter of Polytechnique Montréal spends most days using his expertise in energy and matter to improve medical technologies.…
Green ammonia could produce climate-friendly ways to store energy and fertilize farms
Curbing climate change goes hand-in-hand with decarbonizing energy production. But how can communities continue to meet the global demand for…
How Big Data Carried Graph Theory Into New Dimensions
Graph theory isn’t enough. The mathematical language for talking about connections, which usually depends on networks — vertices (dots) and…
A New Theory for Systems That Defy Newton’s Third Law
Newton’s third law tells us that for every action, there’s an equal reaction going the opposite way. It’s been reassuring…
When Cancer is in the Family
AMY YOFFE HAS ALWAYS KNOWN that cancer runs in her family and is acutely aware of the loss that comes with it.…