The sunlight-collecting organelles known as chloroplasts solve a packing problem: how to optimize photosynthesis without ...

Ultrafinitism, a philosophy that rejects the infinite, has long been dismissed as mathematical heresy. But it is also ...

Remarkably preserved fossils found in southern China offer a fascinating window into what life looked like at the end of the ...

Neurons that fire together, wire together” is not the full story. A novel mechanism explains how the brain can learn across ...

Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory is so widely accepted that modern mathematicians hardly think about it. But believing in its core ...

Ice comes in more forms than what you’ll find in a freezer or a glacier. Since 1900, scientists have observed more than 20 phases of ice, many of them shaped under extreme conditions. The growing list ...

With a newly discovered mathematical tool, researchers are hoping to gain unprecedented insight into the structure of complex ...

Emmy Noether showed that fundamental physical laws are just a consequence of simple symmetries. A century later, her insights continue to shape physics.

Erica Klarreich has been writing about mathematics and science for more than 15 years. She has a doctorate in mathematics from Stony Brook University and is a graduate of the Science Communication ...

A healthy brain maintains a harmony of neurons that excite or inhibit other neurons, but the lines between different types of cells are blurrier than researchers once thought. Climate science is the ...

In a year filled with sweet new observations in astronomy and tantalizing breakthroughs in condensed matter physics, the brand-new space telescope takes the cake.

The bacterial flagellar motor is finally understood after 50 years. In its workings, columnist Natalie Wolchover finds the ...