Column

  1. Math

    Scooping the political pollsters

    Who will win the election in November? A technique from baseball stats may predict the answer.

    By Julie Rehmeyer
  2. Science & Society

    Seeding liberal arts courses with science parables

    In the July 19 Comment, Dudley Herschbach, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in chemistry, discusses how to infuse scientific ideas into humanities education with an aim of increasing overall scientific literacy. Herschbach is Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University and is chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Society for Science & the Public.

    By Dudley Herschbach

  3. The ultimate poker face

    Two professional poker players will take on a computer, and this year the computer could win.

    By Julie Rehmeyer

  4. Strategies for nurturing science’s next generation

    Nobel laureate Thomas R. Cech discusses the conclusions of ARISE, a new report that emphasizes the need for grant support for early-career scientific researchers and basic science research that may have no immediate tangible benefit. Cech is chair of the ARISE report panel and president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

    By Thomas Cech
  5. Math

    The tell-tale anecdote

    An Edgar Allan Poe story reveals a flaw in game theory.

    By Julie Rehmeyer
  6. Astronomy

    Accidental astrophysicists

    MATH TREK: The mathematicians thought they'd just extended a fundamental result in algebra, but it turns out that they'd also proven a conjecture in astrophysics.

    By Julie Rehmeyer

  7. Challenges to building a disaster-resilient nation

    Comment from David Applegate, chair of the National Science and Technology Council's Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction and senior science adviser for earthquake and geologic hazards at the U.S.Geological Survey.

    By David Applegate
  8. Math

    Gender equality closes math gap

    Research shows that the greater the gender equality in a country, the more equal the math scores between boys and girls.

    By Julie Rehmeyer
  9. Math

    Communities of Communities of …

    A new approach to network theory focusing on the subcommunities within networks may shed light on everything from food webs to terrorist cells. It may even act as an oracle, helping scientists identify connections within a network they haven’t yet seen.

    By Julie Rehmeyer

  10. U.S. science policy needs to heed global realities

    Comment by Steven Hyman, provost of Harvard University

    By Steven Hyman
  11. Math

    Detangling DNA

    DNA can form some very nasty knots — but not just any knots.

    By Julie Rehmeyer
  12. Math

    The squint method of data analysis

    Mathematicians discover a Klein bottle hidden within the data underlying photographs

    By Julie Rehmeyer