Mathematics News

March 2, 2025

Top Headlines

Simulating Scientists: New Tool for AI-Powered Scientific Discovery

Feb. 26, 2025 — Researchers have developed a generative AI tool that mimics scientists to support and speed up the process of scientific ...

What Can Theoretical Physics Teach Us About Knitting?

Feb. 26, 2025 — Physicists bring unprecedented levels of predictability to the ancient practice of knitting by developing a mathematical model that could be used to create a new class of lightweight, ultra-strong ...

The Molecular Einstein: One Molecule, Endless Patterns

Feb. 13, 2025 — Is it possible to tile a surface with a single shape in such a way that the pattern never repeats itself? In 2022, a mathematical solution to this 'Einstein problem' was discovered for the first time. Researchers have now also found a chemical ...

School Bans Alone Not Enough to Tackle Negative Impacts of Phone and Social Media Use, Researchers Find

Feb. 5, 2025 — Students attending schools that ban the use of phones throughout the school day aren't necessarily experiencing better mental health and wellbeing, as the first worldwide study of its kind has found ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:11pm EST

Student Refines 100-Year-Old Math Problem, Expanding Wind Energy Possibilities

Feb. 26, 2025 — An engineering student refined a century-old math problem into a simpler, more elegant form, making it easier to use and explore. Divya Tyagi's work ...

Like Human Brains, Large Language Models Reason About Diverse Data in a General Way

Feb. 19, 2025 — Researchers find large language models process diverse types of data, like different languages, audio inputs, images, etc., similarly to how humans ...

Study in India Shows Kids Use Different Math Skills at Work Vs. School

Feb. 5, 2025 — A study by economists shows a wide gap between the kinds of math problems kids who work in retail markets do well and the kinds of problems kids in school do ...

Even Quantum Physics Obeys the Law of Entropy

Jan. 29, 2025 — The universe is getting more disordered, entropy is growing -- this is the second law of thermodynamics. But according to quantum theory, entropy should actually stay the same. Scientists took a ...

Materials Can 'Remember' a Sequence of Events in an Unexpected Way

Jan. 29, 2025 — Many materials store information about what has happened to them in a sort of material memory, like wrinkles on a once crumpled piece of paper. Now, a team of physicists has uncovered how, under ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 'signal' of human-made climate change from ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...