The modern notion of a black hole has been with us since February 1916, three months after Albert Einstein unveiled his theory of gravity. That’s when the physicist Karl Schwarzschild, in the midst of fighting in the German army during World War I, published a paper with astonishing implications: If enough mass is confined within… Continue reading Math Proof Draws New Boundaries Around Black Hole Formation
Category: Quantum Stuff
Racism in Health: The Roots of the U.S. Black Maternal Mortality Crisis
[CLIP] Window rolling down Tulika Bose [tape]: Hey, what’s that? Protestor: It’s a brochure about all the help that’s available for pregnant women. Bose: I’m pulling up to one of the last clinics in Georgia where you can still get a medical abortion. Protestor: [tape] It’s a brochure. Bose: [tape] What’s it a brochure about? … Continue reading Racism in Health: The Roots of the U.S. Black Maternal Mortality Crisis
Complexity Theory’s 50-Year Journey to the Limits of Knowledge
Impediments remain to proving NP-completeness for the full version of MCSP. But none are the sort of barriers that suggest an entirely new toolkit is needed — it may just be a matter of finding the right way to combine known techniques. A proof would finally settle the status of one of the few problems… Continue reading Complexity Theory’s 50-Year Journey to the Limits of Knowledge
Quaking Giants Might Solve the Mysteries of Stellar Magnetism
Our planet is doomed. In a few billion years, the sun will exhaust its hydrogen fuel and swell into a red giant — a star so big it will scorch, blacken and swallow up the inner planets. While red giants are bad news for planets, they’re good news for astrophysicists. Their hearts hold the keys to understanding… Continue reading Quaking Giants Might Solve the Mysteries of Stellar Magnetism
In a Stone Age Community, Women Moved while Men Stayed with Family
In the sixth millennium B.C.E. the first farmers reached Western Europe. Who were these people, how did they live, and what was their family structure like? Some of these questions may now be answerable, thanks to gene and isotope analyses in combination with archaeological observations. By studying the remains of more than 100 dead individuals… Continue reading In a Stone Age Community, Women Moved while Men Stayed with Family
An Old Conjecture Falls, Making Spheres a Lot More Complicated
“I had heard rumors that this was coming up, and I didn’t know exactly what to expect,” said Vesna Stojanoska, a mathematician at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign who attended the conference. It was soon clear the rumors were true. Beginning on Tuesday, and over the next three days, Levy and his co-authors — Robert… Continue reading An Old Conjecture Falls, Making Spheres a Lot More Complicated
The Mysterious Origins of ‘X’ in Algebra
The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. Even though x is one of the least-used letters in the English alphabet, it appears throughout American culture – from Stan Lee’s X-Men superheroes to “The X-Files” TV series. The letter x often symbolizes something unknown, with an air of mystery that… Continue reading The Mysterious Origins of ‘X’ in Algebra
Exoplanets Could Help Us Learn How Planets Make Magnetism
For decades, astronomers have been perplexed by planetary magnetic fields. In our own solar system, there is no rule that explains which worlds generate these magnetic sheaths: Earth, for example, has one, but its sister world — Venus — does not. Astronomers suspect that one of the best ways to understand the mysteries of magnetism might be… Continue reading Exoplanets Could Help Us Learn How Planets Make Magnetism
Most Americans Support NASA—But Don’t Think It Should Prioritize Sending People To Space
The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. Most Americans (69%) believe it is essential that the United States continue to be a world leader in space. But only a subsection of that group believes NASA should prioritize sending people to the Moon, according to a new… Continue reading Most Americans Support NASA—But Don’t Think It Should Prioritize Sending People To Space
The Gambling Strategy That’s Guaranteed to Make Money and Why You Should Never Use It
Beneath the varnish of flashing lights and free cocktails, casinos stand on a bedrock of mathematics, engineered to slowly bleed their patrons of cash. For years, mathematically inclined minds have tried to turn the tables by harnessing their knowledge of probability and game theory to exploit weaknesses in a rigged system. An amusing example played… Continue reading The Gambling Strategy That’s Guaranteed to Make Money and Why You Should Never Use It