After 30 months of fast-paced innovation in quantum algorithms, six research groups are hoping to hit paydirt. But there can be only one big winner—if there is a winner at all. I’m standing in front ...

In 2019, Monte Leifheit, a warehouse operator at 3M, noticed his left eye was bloodshot and swollen. What began as a minor irritation turned into a yearlong medical odyssey marked by the lack of a ...

Some readers may solve the problem procedurally: line up the two numbers, add the ones column, carry the one, and add the tens to get 43. Others might instead notice a creative shortcut: 29 + 14 is ...

In a dark room, in the middle of the night, a woman lies dreaming. Suddenly, her eyes beneath their lids dart crisply left-right, left-right. The eye signal means she knows she’s dreaming. Lucid ...

Your brain could be gently coaxed into working on complex problems while you sleep, making you better able to tackle them the next day. Now, Karen Konkoly at Northwestern University in Illinois and ...

Steven Bouma-Prediger seldom sees students walking between classes without their faces buried in their smartphones. This distraction transfers into the classroom, where Bouma-Prediger takes matters ...

Mathematics, like many other scientific endeavors, is increasingly using artificial intelligence. Of course, math is the backbone of AI, but mathematicians are also turning to these tools for tasks ...

Do you stare at a math word problem and feel completely stuck? You're not alone. These problems mix reading comprehension with complex math concepts, making them a common hurdle for students. The good ...

Amateur mathematicians are using artificial intelligence chatbots to solve long-standing problems, in a move that has taken professionals by surprise. While the problems in question aren’t the most ...

Wikipedia has recently come under the microscope. I take some credit for this, as the co-founder of Wikipedia and a vocal critic of the knowledge platform for a long time. In September, I nailed ...