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Mathematics news
World Cup research reveals strategy to give teams a penalty-shootout edge
One of football's most iconic moments—the penalty shootout—may be far more strategic than previously thought, with new research challenging the notion that the team kicking first holds a major advantage.
Mathematics
16 hours ago
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Mathematicians unleash multifold speed boost for supercomputer simulations of molecules
More than 20% of the workload on the world's 500 fastest supercomputers is spent simulating how atoms and molecules move—with applications ranging from material design to identifying drug interactions to understanding protein ...
Mathematics
Jun 24, 2026
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91
How languages recycle parts of words to avoid confusion
Many languages recycle words, giving them different meanings. For example, in English, "run" can mean to move quickly but also to manage something, like "run a company." In Spanish, "lengua" is both the word for tongue and ...
New Zealand scientists working on 'R' win major global award
Scientists working on the revolutionary 'R' programming language invented at the University of Auckland have won a top award intended to be a Nobel Prize for statisticians.
Mathematics
Jun 19, 2026
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130
S-M-A-R-T! These researchers used math to crack Wordle
Every day, millions of people play Wordle, the popular New York Times game that challenges users to guess a secret five-letter word. Using information theory, a team of researchers at Binghamton University, State University ...
Mathematics
Jun 17, 2026
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Redefined conformity model beats averaging in five real-world tests of opinion dynamics
Imagine you poll your friends on how many minutes per pound to roast a turkey. Five respond with 15 minutes; one answers 33 minutes. The most popular model of conformity, the French-Harary-DeGroot model (or more commonly, ...
Mathematics
Jun 15, 2026
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9
'Basketball Mathematics' help children boost math skills without extra class time
A dribble and a jump shot, followed by a fractions task. That is what physical education classes looked like for a group of pupils, and the pupils not only found the lessons more engaging than usual—they also became better ...
Mathematics
Jun 10, 2026
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Parents helping kids enjoy math may boost achievement as much as content support
How do children learn math? It's shaped by what they know as well as their motivation and engagement. Historically, research on children's math learning has been focused on parents' cognitive practices (such as math talk—informal ...
Mathematics
Jun 10, 2026
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Football tracking data uncovers rival tactics beyond TV formations before 2026 World Cup
From June 11, countless millions of people will be following the football World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. They will discuss their team's performance, talk like experts about tactics and formations, and cower behind ...
Mathematics
Jun 9, 2026
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6
Hidden geometry explains why kernel methods separate complex data so well
Are two sets of data genuinely different, or is it because of randomness? This question, known as the two-sample testing problem, becomes notoriously difficult in modern datasets, because they are often high-dimensional, ...
Mathematics
Jun 8, 2026
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227
What network science can tell us about the 2026 World Cup
Team Australia kicked it long from the goalkeeper. Switzerland took a slower approach and preferred short passes over long drives. Spain, on the other hand, tended to string the ball with sharp, sideways passes across the ...
Mathematics
Jun 4, 2026
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Overarming America: Game theory explores how fear and social pressure drive gun purchases
A Dartmouth College study is the first to map the interplay of personal choice and social networks that has led to the United States being one of the world's most heavily armed countries, with 120 firearms for every 100 people. ...
Mathematics
Jun 3, 2026
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122
2026 World Cup: Spain in the lead, but title race remains wide open
Ahead of major soccer tournaments, a research team led by Achim Zeileis of the University of Innsbruck and Andreas Groll of TU Dortmund University calculates the chances of winning for all participating teams. For the 2026 ...
Mathematics
Jun 3, 2026
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14
Mathematicians say 'don't believe hype' on AI capabilities
Dozens of mathematicians signed a declaration Tuesday calling for the discipline to resist beating the drum for artificial intelligence developers.
Mathematics
Jun 2, 2026
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336
How a Richard Feynman formula could explain your dining habits in a new city
One of the dilemmas facing anyone in a new and unfamiliar city is where to dine out. You might consult guides, speak to locals, check reviews, and ultimately, try your luck. But if you're there for a while, at some point ...
Mathematician solves origami donut efficiency challenge with fewest folds
Most people wouldn't think that it would take rigorous mathematical proof to show how many folds it takes to make a donut shape out of paper. Yet, no one could quite figure it out until recently.
'Shoot for the moon?' Aim a bit lower, researchers say
How ambitious should you be? Folk wisdom offers conflicting advice: "Shoot for the moon," but also, "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." A new study by researchers at the University of Wyoming, Stanford University ...
Mathematics
May 29, 2026
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An AI solution to an 80‑year‑old problem has shocked mathematicians
Last week, OpenAI shocked the mathematical community by revealing that one of its internal artificial intelligence (AI) models had found a counterexample to a famous conjecture made by legendary Hungarian mathematician Paul ...
Mathematics
May 28, 2026
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133
Researchers develop Bayesian inference for hidden dependence structures in multi-group high-dimensional data
In today's scientific and industrial fields, high-dimensional data in which numerous variables are observed simultaneously, such as genomic, climate, financial, and sensor data, are rapidly increasing. In such data, it is ...
Mathematics
May 26, 2026
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9
New mathematical model suggests global population crash by 2064
In a new open-access study that I published with my late colleague Kostya Trachenko from Queen Mary University of London, I propose a surprisingly simple nonlinear mathematical equation that unifies 12,000 years of human ...
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Loss of DNA protector gene exposes vulnerabilities in cancerous cells
Scientists teach human cells to compute like tiny computers
