The bunkbed conjecture says that the probability of finding the path on the bottom bunk is always greater than or equal to the probability of finding the path that jumps to the top bunk. It doesn’t matter what graph you start with, or how many vertical posts you draw between the bunks, or which starting… Continue reading Math’s ‘Bunkbed Conjecture’ Has Been Debunked
Category: Quantum Stuff
Artificial Intelligence Will Let Humanity Talk to Alien Civilizations
Artificial intelligence mania has overtaken our economy and will soon expand beyond Earth to become omnipresent in spacecraft as well. It’s worth asking, what does this mean for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence? Just like on Earth, AI promises a rethinking of long-cherished hopes for space exploration, such as finding that we are not alone… Continue reading Artificial Intelligence Will Let Humanity Talk to Alien Civilizations
Computer Scientists Establish the Best Way to Traverse a Graph
If you’ve been making the same commute for a long time, you’ve probably settled on what seems like the best route. But “best” is a slippery concept. Perhaps one day there’s an accident or road closure, and your fastest route becomes the slowest. Scenarios like this are also a challenge for researchers who develop algorithms,… Continue reading Computer Scientists Establish the Best Way to Traverse a Graph
Emotional Ads Show How Climate Change Is ‘Robbing Our Kids of a Safe and Beautiful World’
Emotional Ads Show How Climate Change Is ‘Robbing Our Kids of a Safe and Beautiful World’ The nonpartisan group Science Moms says its campaign of ads that show the harms that climate change brings to children is nonpartisan and meant to educate the public about climate impacts By Adam Aton & E&E News A child… Continue reading Emotional Ads Show How Climate Change Is ‘Robbing Our Kids of a Safe and Beautiful World’
Meet the Eukaryote, the First Cell to Get Organized
Three billion years ago, life on Earth was simple. Single-celled organisms ruled, and there wasn’t much to them. They were what we now call prokaryotic cells, which include modern-day bacteria and archaea, essentially sacks of loose molecular parts. They swirled together in shallow, primordial brews or near deep-sea ocean vents, where they extracted energy from… Continue reading Meet the Eukaryote, the First Cell to Get Organized
Srinivasa Ramanujan Was a Genius. Math Is Still Catching Up.
One afternoon in January 2011, Hussein Mourtada leapt onto his desk and started dancing. He wasn’t alone: Some of the graduate students who shared his Paris office were there, too. But he didn’t care. The mathematician realized that he could finally confirm a sneaking suspicion he’d first had while writing his doctoral dissertation, which he’d… Continue reading Srinivasa Ramanujan Was a Genius. Math Is Still Catching Up.
See the Perseid Meteor Shower and Watch Tornado Hunters on the Big Screen
Rachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners! Let’s start the day off right by catching up on some of the science news you may have missed last week. For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, this is Rachel Feltman. This past Friday, a global outage hit Microsoft Windows devices and caused quite a kerfuffle. Flights all over the world… Continue reading See the Perseid Meteor Shower and Watch Tornado Hunters on the Big Screen
How Do Merging Supermassive Black Holes Pass the Final Parsec?
More prosaic solutions to the puzzle have also been floated over the years. Amid this slew of options — some mundane, some exotic — scientists are devising ways to test the possibilities against each other. “It’s almost taken for granted at this point by most of the community that the final-parsec problem is solved,” said… Continue reading How Do Merging Supermassive Black Holes Pass the Final Parsec?
Why Is It So Hard to Define a Species?
The “species” category is almost certainly the best known of all the taxonomic classifications that biologists use to organize life’s vast diversity. It’s a linchpin of both conservation policy and evolutionary theory, though in practice biologists have struggled to find a definition that works across the natural world. In this episode, Kevin de Queiroz, a… Continue reading Why Is It So Hard to Define a Species?
Big Advance on Simple-Sounding Math Problem Was a Century in the Making
There was just one wrinkle: Pasten had no exam to give his students. He instead had them write an essay on whatever topic they wanted. “This turned out to result in very high-quality work,” he said. Pasten submitted his proof to Inventiones Mathematicae, one of math’s preeminent journals, where it was accepted in just over… Continue reading Big Advance on Simple-Sounding Math Problem Was a Century in the Making