The optical properties of mitochondrial bundles in the retina may improve how efficiently the eye captures light.

The existence of secure cryptography depends on one of the oldest questions in computational complexity.

Knots can help unlock the biochemistry of DNA or the geometry of three-dimensional spaces. Steven Strogatz explores these mysteries with Colin Adams and Lisa Piccirillo.

Knots can help unlock the biochemistry of DNA or the geometry of three-dimensional spaces. Steven Strogatz explores these mysteries with Colin Adams and Lisa Piccirillo.

A new analysis of W bosons suggests these particles are significantly heavier than predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics.

Learn the magic and math of how to win games when your opponent goes first.

Life could use a more expansive genetic code in theory, but new work shows that improving on three-letter codons would be a challenge.

For centuries, mathematicians have tried to prove that Euler’s fluid equations can produce nonsensical answers. A new approach to machine learning has researchers betting that “blowup” is near.

The Tonga eruption in January was “basically like Krakatoa 2.” This time, geophysicists could explain the tiny tsunamis that cropped up all over the planet, solving a 139-year-old mystery about Tonga’s predecessor.

Language processing programs are notoriously hard to interpret, but smaller versions can provide important insights into how they work.

Cryptographers want to know which of five possible worlds we inhabit, which will reveal whether truly secure cryptography is even possible.

Traits from RNA molecules passed between multiple generations of worms can work with genetic changes to influence future evolution.

Vijay Balasubramanian investigates whether the fabric of the universe might be built from information, and what it means that physicists can even ask such a question.

The immune system protects us from a full spectrum of pathogens, but without balance, it can end up hurting us over time, too. The immunologist Shruti Naik explains how our defenses can turn on us.

Van der Waerden’s conjecture mystified mathematicians for 85 years. Its solution shows how polynomial roots relate to one another.

Two young mathematicians have astonished their colleagues with a full proof of the Kahn-Kalai conjecture — a sweeping statement about how structure emerges in random sets and graphs. or

Was the addition of mitochondria a first step in the formation of complex cells or one of the last? A new study of bacteria tries to answer this contentious question in evolutionary biology.

While it’s understandable to focus on the diseases affecting humans, it’s important to study how our illnesses may affect animals.

Robots are about to venture into the sunless depths of lunar craters to investigate ancient water ice trapped there, while remote studies find hints about how water arrives on rocky worlds.

The famed Navier-Stokes equations can lead to cases where more than one result is possible, but only in an extremely narrow set of situations.

Throwing out data seems to make measurements of distances and angles more precise. The reason why has been traced to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle.