Mathematics News

January 26, 2025

Top Headlines

Synchronization in Neural Nets: Mathematical Insight Into Neuron Readout Drives Significant Improvements in Prediction Accuracy

Jan. 16, 2025 — Researchers applied the mathematical theory of synchronization to clarify how recurrent neural networks (RNNs) generate predictions, revealing a certain map, based on the generalized synchronization, ...

How Do Directional Connections Shape Complex Dynamics in Neuronal Networks?

Jan. 6, 2025 — In order to uncover the relationship between structure and function, researchers used microfluidic devices to study neuronal ...

How Does a Hula Hoop Master Gravity? Mathematicians Prove That Shape Matters

Jan. 2, 2025 — Hula hooping is so commonplace that we may overlook some interesting questions it raises: 'What keeps a hula hoop up against gravity?' and 'Are some body types better for hula hooping than others?' A ...

String Figures Shed Light on Cultural Connections and the Roots of Mathematical Reasoning

Dec. 17, 2024 — New research suggests that the making of string figures, a globally documented practice, may point to shared cultural heritage stretching back millennia. The research offers a new way to investigate ...

Latest Headlines

updated 5:42pm EST

Pioneering Mathematical Model Could Help Protect Privacy and Ensure Safer Use of AI

Jan. 9, 2025 — AI tools are increasingly being used to track and monitor us both online and in-person, yet their effectiveness comes with big risks. Computer ...

Physicists 'Bootstrap' Validity of String Theory

Dec. 17, 2024 — String theory remains elusive as a 'provable' phenomenon. But a team of physicists has now taken a significant step forward in validating string theory by using an innovative mathematical method that ...

Physics and Emote Design: Quantifying Clarity in Digital Images

Dec. 16, 2024 — When analyzing artworks, understanding the visual clarity of compositions is crucial. Inspired by digital artists, researchers have created a metric to quantify clarity in digital images. As a ...

Leap in Modelling Human Impact on Climate May Lead to Early Warning of Climate Disasters

Dec. 10, 2024 — Mathematicians have applied statistical mechanics to climate change detection and attribution for first time. They have shown how to separate the ...

New AI Cracks Complex Engineering Problems Faster Than Supercomputers

Dec. 9, 2024 — Modeling how cars deform in a crash, how spacecraft responds to extreme environments, or how bridges resist stress could be made thousands of times faster thanks to new artificial intelligence that ...

X-Ray Vision: Seeing Through the Mystery of an X-Ray Emissions Mechanism

Dec. 4, 2024 — Since the 1960s, scientists who study X-rays, lightning and similar phenomena have observed something curious: In lab experiments replicating these occurrences, electrons accelerated between two ...

How Neighborhood Enhances Cooperation

Dec. 6, 2024 — Helping out your neighbor or minding your own business? A challenging choice with different benefits for each decision. Game theory provides guidance in making such choices -- from a theoretical ...

A New Way to Create Realistic 3D Shapes Using Generative AI

Dec. 4, 2024 — An AI method enables the generation of sharp, high-quality 3D shapes that are closer to the quality of the best 2D image models. Previous approaches typically generated blurry or cartoonish 3D ...

Study in Neurosurgery Patients Reveals Numerical Concepts Are Processed Deep in Ancient Part of Brain

Dec. 3, 2024 — New research reveals the unique human ability to conceptualize numbers may be rooted deep within the ...

New Theory Reveals the Shape of a Single Photon

Nov. 19, 2024 — A new theory, that explains how light and matter interact at the quantum level has enabled researchers to define for the first time the precise shape of a single ...

'Walk This Way': How Ants Create Trails to Multiple Food Sources

Nov. 16, 2024 — Researchers have discovered that in a foraging ant's search for food, it will leave pheromone trails connecting its colony to multiple food sources when they're available, successfully ...

Scientists Use Math to Predict Crystal Structure in Hours Instead of Months

Nov. 14, 2024 — Researchers have devised a mathematical approach to predict the structures of crystals -- a critical step in developing many medicines and electronic devices -- in a matter of hours using only a ...

Mathematical Modelling Leads to a Better Understanding of Prostate Cancer

Nov. 14, 2024 — Researchers have developed a three-dimensional mathematical model of prostate cancer. The model depicts various processes, including tumour growth, genetic evolution and tumour cell ...

Robot That Watched Surgery Videos Performs With Skill of Human Doctor, Researchers Report

Nov. 11, 2024 — A robot, trained for the first time by watching videos of seasoned surgeons, executed the same surgical procedures as skillfully as the human doctors, say ...

Teens Who Made History With Pythagoras' Theorem Discovery Publish Their First Academic Paper With New Proofs

Oct. 28, 2024 — In their peer-reviewed work, Calcea Johnson and Ne'Kiya Jackson present five new ways of proving Pythagoras' Theorem via trigonometry. They also detail a new method for finding proofs that ...

In Double Breakthrough, Mathematician Solves Two Long-Standing Problems

Oct. 9, 2024 — A professor who has devoted his career to resolving the mysteries of higher mathematics has solved two separate, fundamental problems that have perplexed mathematicians for ...

Higher-Order Interactions Can Remodel the Landscape of Complex Systems

Oct. 2, 2024 — Scientists report on how higher-order interactions can reshape a system at large -- even global -- ...

Language Agents Help Large Language Models 'Think' Better and Cheaper

Sep. 24, 2024 — Researchers have devised an agent to help large language models ...

Recent Study Reveals Reduced Maths Performance of Adults With Dyspraxia

Sep. 17, 2024 — Dyspraxia, also known as Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), can have a bigger impact on adult mathematical performance than previously thought, according to new ...

Unveiling the Math Behind Your Calendar

Sep. 13, 2024 — In a world where organizing a simple meeting can feel like herding cats, new research reveals just how challenging finding a suitable meeting time becomes as the number of participants grows. The ...

Big Algebras: A Dictionary of Abstract Math

Sep. 12, 2024 — Several fields of mathematics have developed in total isolation, using their own 'undecipherable' coded languages. Mathematicians now present 'big algebras,' a two-way ...

Mathematical Proof: Five Satellites Needed for Precise Navigation

Sep. 6, 2024 — What is the shortest route to the next stop or the agreed meeting point? Global positioning systems (GPS) have become a routine part of everyday life for most people. Until now, however, the minimum ...

Mathematicians Model a Puzzling Breakdown in Cooperative Behavior

Sep. 3, 2024 — A model developed by evolutionary mathematicians shows that as conditions for cooperation improve between two species, mutually beneficial behavior can unexpectedly become unbalanced. Cooperative ...

Research Cracks the Autism Code, Making the Neurodivergent Brain Visible

Aug. 28, 2024 — A researcher's mathematical modeling approach for brain imaging analysis reveals links between genes, brain structure and ...

Cold Math, Hot Topic: Sea Ice Thermal Conductivity

Aug. 27, 2024 — Researchers developed a mathematical model showing how brine movement in sea ice enhances heat transfer, potentially improving climate change predictions for polar ...

Think Fast -- Or Not: Mathematics Behind Decision Making

Aug. 12, 2024 — New research explains the mathematics behind how initial predispositions and additional information affect decision ...

Those With the Biggest Biases Choose First, According to New Math Study

Aug. 12, 2024 — In a new study, researchers created a sort of simulated voting booth -- a space where people, or mathematical 'agents,' with various biases could deliberate over decisions. The results may ...

Researchers Develop AI Model That Predicts the Accuracy of Protein--DNA Binding

Aug. 9, 2024 — A new artificial intelligence model can predict how different proteins may bind to ...

Eye-Tracking Study Provides Valuable Insights Into Learning Mathematics

Aug. 2, 2024 — Eye-tracking allows studying aspects that cannot be seen, for example, the thinking processes of a student solving a mathematical problem. Researchers have integrated eye-tracking into education and ...

There Is Mathematical Proof in the Pudding

July 22, 2024 — In blockchain development, there is a rule of thumb that only two of scalability, security, and decentralization are valid simultaneously. However, the mathematical expression of that rule was still ...