Math
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Chemistry
From movies you’ll love to drugs you’ll take
A new method picks out promising drug compounds by computer, in much the same way Netflix recommends DVDs to its customers.
- Materials Science
Physicists untangle the geometry of rope
Equations explain why winding fibers together does the job, no matter what they’re made of.
- Math
Hiding patients in plain sight
A new technique could help make medical records available to researchers without compromising privacy.
- Math
Million-dollar math prize awarded, but not necessarily accepted
The reclusive mathematician who proved the Poincaré conjecture may or may not claim his prize.
- Health & Medicine
Walnuts slow prostate cancer growth
A new study suggests that mice with prostate tumors should say “nuts to cancer.” Paul Davis of the University of California, Davis, hopes follow-up data by his team and others will one day justify men saying the same.
- Math
Big or small, financial bubbles burst alike
New data from the Frankfurt stock exchange show that fleeting financial bubbles behave according to the same mathematical rules as history-making ones.
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- Math
The mutual inspiration of art and mathematics
Economics, origami and other fields trigger new and original creations.
- Math
Slime mold is master network engineer
Single-cell organism develops food distribution system that is as efficient as the Tokyo rail system; inspires new math model for designing dynamic systems.
- Math
Teaching a computer to spot a bogus Bruegel
Mathematicians apply a technique from vision research to find fake art.
- Physics
Symmetry found hidden in supercold atoms
Scientists have detected an elusive, complex symmetry in the frequencies of resonating particles
- Math
2009 Science News of the Year: Numbers
Detroit Tigers second baseman Placido Polanco, a 2009 Gold Glove winner, applies the tag as Chicago White Sox’s Gordon Beckham slides into second. Image credit: Duane Burleson – file The stats on fielding Astute baseball fans know who has the golden glove, but assigning a number to a player’s defensive merits has been tricky. Benjamin […]
