News tagged with mathematician

Tall water waves behave unexpectedly

(PhysOrg.com) -- In investigating the behavior of large-amplitude standing water waves, mathematician Jon Wilkening of the University of California, Berkeley, has discovered that the waves’ behavior cannot ...

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 15, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (18) | comments 2 | with audio podcast feature

Cooperation vs. Competition: Greed is good -- but only a moderate amount

(PhysOrg.com) -- Relationships between cooperation, competition, and society have long been pondered by psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, economists, philosophers, and mathematicians. While (as ...

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created Jul 21, 2011 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (8) | comments 19 | with audio podcast feature

To build a cooperative society, is it better to punish or reward?

(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the basic components of a functional, cooperative society is a code of law, where the laws are usually enforced by some kind of incentive. Social incentives can either be positive (rewards) or negative ...

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created Apr 19, 2010 | popularity 4 / 5 (25) | comments 91 | with audio podcast feature

Winning While Losing: New Strategy Solves 'Two-Envelope' Paradox

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers from Australia have taken a step toward resolving a seemingly simple yet unsolved paradox known as the "two-envelope" problem. They’ve worked out a new strategy that can enable ...

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created Aug 18, 2009 | popularity 3.6 / 5 (34) | comments 42 feature

Was the real discovery of the expanding universe lost in translation?

(PhysOrg.com) -- The greatest astronomical discovery of the 20th century may have been credited to the wrong person. But it turns out to have been nobody's fault except for that of the actual original discoverer ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Nov 09, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (17) | comments 13 | with audio podcast

Study explains why soggy skin gets wrinkly but does not dissolve

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study by mathematicians in Australia has explained how skin remains stable in water and does not dissolve, and why it wrinkles and remains a strong barrier even after absorbing large ...

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created Mar 10, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (13) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

Mathematician credited with solving one of combinatorial geometry's most challenging problems

(PhysOrg.com) -- A mathematician in the Indiana University College of Arts and Sciences is being credited with resolving a 65-year-old problem in combinatorial geometry that sought to determine the minimum number of distinct ...

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created Feb 25, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (11) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

Fruit fly nervous system provides new solution to fundamental computer network problem

(PhysOrg.com) -- The fruit fly has evolved a method for arranging the tiny, hair-like structures it uses to feel and hear the world that's so efficient a team of scientists in Israel and at Carnegie Mellon ...

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Jan 13, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (14) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Gravity eases its pull

(PhysOrg.com) -- Ever since Galileo first dropped his balls off the top of the Tower of Pisa in the late 16th century, gravity has caused a major headache for mathematicians and physicists down the ages.

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 04, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (53) | comments 51 | with audio podcast

Age gap really does matter: Math mentors much more effective in beginning of career

A new Northwestern University study of mentor-protege relationships has found something that parents and children have known for a long time: the generation gap is real, and it matters. It not only affects communication but ...

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created Jun 02, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Mathematical model explains marital breakups

(PhysOrg.com) -- Most people know love takes work, and effort is needed to sustain a happy relationship over the long term, but now a mathematician in Spain has for the first time explained it mathematically ...

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created May 17, 2010 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (43) | comments 8 | with audio podcast report

Mathematicians set world record in packing puzzle

(PhysOrg.com) -- Finding the best way to pack the greatest quantity of a specifically shaped object into a confined space may sound simple, yet it consistently has led to deep mathematical concepts and practical ...

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created Aug 12, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (15) | comments 1

French-Russian mathematician Gromov wins Abel prize

French-Russian mathematician Mikhail Gromov on Thursday won one of the world's top mathematics award, Norway's Abel Prize, for "his revolutionary contributions to geometry," the prize committee said.

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created Mar 26, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (6) | comments 0

Math predicts size of clot-forming cells

UC Davis mathematicians have helped biologists figure out why platelets, the cells that form blood clots, are the size and shape that they are. Because platelets are important both for healing wounds and in strokes and other ...

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created May 25, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Separating signal from noise in living cells

A mathematician from the University of Bristol has teamed up with a biologist from the University of Edinburgh to address a major problem in molecular biology.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 07, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast