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- Earth
Obama administration should lead energy transition
R.K. Pachauri, an engineer and economist by training, is director-general of The Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi, India, and a corecipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his role as chief of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The IPCC periodically issues consensus reports on the science of climate change. Senior editor Janet Raloff spoke with him about changes he hopes to see from the Obama administration.
- Math
The happiness virus
Two studies apply social networking ideas to data from health studies of thousands of people, and suggest different interpretations of how contagious happiness or other experiences can be.
- Math
Traveler’s Dilemma: When it’s smart to be dumb
Some game theory paradoxes can be resolved by assuming that people adopt multiple personae, and aren’t rational.
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- Math
Florence Nightingale: The passionate statistician
Florence Nightingale pioneered the use of applied statistics to develop policy and developed novel ways of displaying them.
- Space
Debates over definition of planet continue and inspire
Planetary science is in the midst of a revolution. As recently as the early 1990s, “the planets” consisted of just nine famous objects in our solar system that every school kid learned to recognize by name and appearance. But then, advances in astronomical technology unleashed an explosion of new planetary discoveries on two fronts. One […]
- Math
How to (really) trust a mathematical proof
Mathematicians develop computer proof-checking systems in order to realize long-sought dreams of fully precise, accurate mathematics.
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- Math
Unknotting knot theory
New techniques are beginning to unravel the mysteries of knots, revealing a great mathematical superstructure in the process.
- Math
A frustrating view of complexity
The unifying theme of complex systems, a researcher argues, is frustration.
