Twenty years ago, physicists set out to investigate a mysterious asymmetry in the proton's interior. Their results, published today, show how antimatter helps stabilize every atom's core.

Researchers are tracking the different strains of SARS-CoV-2 and studying how they spread through our population and our bodies.

To the surprise of experts in the field, a postdoctoral statistician has solved one of the most important problems in high-dimensional convex geometry.

In a second season of enlightened conversations, Steven Strogatz and leading researchers nourish our pandemic-starved minds.

A new thought experiment indicates that quantum mechanics doesn't work without strange numbers that turn negative when squared.

A former graduate student reflects on how Isadore Singer, who died on February 11, brought together mathematicians, physicists and anyone else interested in the deeper connections between diverse fiel

By harnessing randomness, a new algorithm achieves a fundamentally novel — and faster — way of performing one of the most basic computations in math and computer science.

Scientists have struggled to formulate a universal definition of life. Is it possible they don't need one?

Spurred on by quantum experiments that scramble the ordering of causes and their effects, some physicists are figuring out how to abandon causality altogether.

Enter the world of perfect numbers and explore the mystery mathematicians have spent thousands of years trying to solve.

An unexpected superconductor was beginning to look like a fluke, but a new theory and a second discovery has revealed that emergent quasiparticles may be behind the effect.

Avi Wigderson and László Lovász won for their work developing complexity theory and graph theory, respectively, and for connecting the two fields.

The zoologist Arik Kershenbaum argues that because some evolutionary challenges are truly universal, life throughout the cosmos may share certain features.

Most modeling efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic have sought to address urgent practical concerns. But some groups aim to bolster the theoretical underpinnings of that work instead.

A recent paper set the fastest record for multiplying two matrices. But it also marks the end of the line for a method researchers have relied on for decades to make improvements.

The zoo of spontaneously emerging particlelike entities known as quasiparticles has grown quickly and become more and more exotic. Here are a few of the most curious and potentially useful examples.

New data indicating that Earth's surface broke up about 3.2 billion years ago helps clarify how plate tectonics drove the evolution of complex life.

Readers used their Zen-like puzzle solving skills to discover hidden insights.

Black holes seemed to come only in sizes small and XXL. A new search strategy has uncovered a black hole of "intermediate" mass, raising hopes of more to come.

Despite finding no specific examples, researchers have proved the existence of a pervasive kind of prime number so delicate that changing any of its infinite digits renders it composite.