All Stories by Erica Klarreich
- Humans
Small World After All: Short e-mail chains reach targets worldwide
A large-scale study of e-mail users has borne out the notion that one person on the planet can reach any other person through a chain of about six social ties.
- Humans
Ideal Justice: Mathematicians judge the Supreme Court
The current U.S. Supreme Court of nine judges behaves as if it were made up of 4.68 "ideal" justices who make their decisions completely independently, a mathematical analysis suggests.
- Math
If It Looks Like a Sphere…
A Russian mathematician has proposed a proof of the Poincaré conjecture, a question about the shapes of three-dimensional spaces.
- Math
Uncovering a prime failure
Mathematicians have returned to the drawing board after what looked like a dramatic step forward in understanding prime numbers.
- Math
Spheres in Disguise: Solid proof offered for famous conjecture
A Russian mathematician has proposed a proof of the Poincaré conjecture, a question about the shapes of three-dimensional spaces.
- Tech
Digital Cells
Researchers are gearing up to create cells with computer programs hardwired into the DNA.
- Math
Prime Finding: Mathematicians mind the gap
Mathematicians have taken a significant step toward proving the twin-prime conjecture by simplifying formulas for estimating the average spacing of primes.
- Math
Knotty Calculations
An alternative approach to quantum computing takes advantage of space-time knots and braids.
- Math
Election Selection
By ignoring how voters might rank all the candidates in an election, the plurality system opens the floodgates to unsettling, paradoxical results when there are three or more candidates.
