After just a few months of work, a complete newcomer to the world of sphere packing has solved one of its biggest open ...

A better understanding of human smell is emerging as scientists interrogate its fundamental elements: the odor molecules that ...

The precursors of heavy elements might arise in the plasma underbellies of swollen stars or in smoldering stellar corpses.

Scientists reconstructed 500 million years of evolutionary history to reveal which came first: colorful signals or the color ...

Early Signals One of the most striking examples of how metabolism can drive cell differentiation comes from a humble slime mold. When Dictyostelium has plenty of nutrients in its environment, it ...

It can be hard to tell, at first, when a cell is on the verge of self-destruction. It appears to be going about its usual business, transcribing genes and making proteins. The powerhouse organelles ...

Despite some reservations about the label “social,” other scientists generally agree that understanding the bustling signaling networks that mitochondria establish within and between cells could help ...

The Emergence of Emergence In the spring I took the train to Princeton, New Jersey, and walked to the pastoral campus of the Institute for Advanced Study. This was where von Neumann developed the math ...

Now Figueiredo’s conspiracy is another manifestation of abstract geometric structure that seems to underlie particle physics. “The overall program is inching closer to Nima’s long-term dream of ...

n 1943, a pair of neuroscientists were trying to describe how the human nervous system works when they accidentally laid the foundation for artificial intelligence. In their mathematical framework for ...