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AI challenges math by solving the unsolvable

Announcements over recent months that artificial intelligence models have cracked previously unsolvable problems are shaking top-level mathematicians to the core, and they are now asking themselves: Where do we come in?

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Analytical Chemistry
Tests reveal why titanium additions do not fully prevent pitting corrosion in stainless steel
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'One-positron cyclotron' could test a key prediction of the Standard Model
Plasma Physics
Single X-ray pulse reveals plasma nanostructures across scales with one camera
Earth Sciences
Ancient stalagmites reveal exceptions to Asia–South America monsoon seesaw over the past 450,000 years
Plants & Animals
Seabird family tree predicts which species accumulate plastic better than diet, global analysis finds
Cell & Microbiology
Newly identified protein pathway helps HIV stay hidden despite treatment
Environment
Cleaner brick kilns cut pollution, but gains did not reach workers, research finds
Education
Swinging virtual lightsabers and punching improve pattern-based learning in VR tests
Plants & Animals
Glowing plants reveal immune responses around infection sites via two colors
Paleontology & Fossils
Rare fossils reveal what ancient Denisovans may have looked like
Biotechnology
DNA programs a cell-free material to build its own motors and move
Space Exploration
Everyday Mylar turned into a promising insulator for lunar habitats
Astronomy
Black holes spinning near maximum rate could split in two, calculations suggest
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ALMA spots 'dragon egg' that may represent the earliest stages of massive star formation
Quantum Physics
Experiment shows when quantum 'cat' states stop bouncing back
Earth Sciences
Sinking Antarctic ice reveals a hidden lake's massive water loss
Evolution
An ancient virus in chimpanzee DNA switches off a gene that is active in humans
Political science
AI agents can form political camps—and changing their conversation partners does little to soften their views
Earth Sciences
El Niño then and now
Archaeology
Paleolithic human DNA reveals east-west connections across Ice Age Europe

When you do the math, humans still rule

Artificial intelligence has attained an impressive series of feats—solving problems from the International Math Olympiad, conducting encyclopedic surveys of academic literature, and even finding solutions to some longstanding ...

Exploring why some children struggle to learn math

Hyesang Chang and colleagues, from Stanford University, explored why some children struggle to learn math compared to their peers in a new JNeurosci paper. Children selected which numbers were bigger than others across different ...