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  1. Math

    Conquering Catalan’s Conjecture

    Innocent-looking problems involving whole numbers can stymie even the most astute mathematicians. As in the case of Fermats last theorem, centuries of effort may go into proving such tantalizing, deceptively simple conjectures in number theory. Now, Preda Mihailescu of the University of Paderborn in Germany finally may have the key to a venerable problem known […]

    By Ivars Peterson
  2. Animals

    Oops. Woodpecker raps were actually gunshots

    The knock-knock noises recorded last winter that raised hopes for rediscovering the long-lost ivory-billed woodpecker in Louisiana turn out to have been gunshots instead of bird noises.

    By Susan Milius
  3. Math

    Algebra, Philosophy, and Fun

    I don’t often encounter the words “philosophy” and “fun” right next to the term “algebra.”