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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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

'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 ...

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Mathematics
New mathematical model suggests global population crash by 2064
Mathematics
Mathematicians solve decades-old mystery about the hidden order in high-dimensional randomness
Mathematics
AI makes a major breakthrough in a math problem that had stumped experts for decades
Mathematics
When noisy decision-making becomes a strategic advantage
Mathematics
A physicist's fresh look at the 'prisoner's dilemma' reveals hope for cooperation
Mathematics
Fair matching systems can still produce unequal outcomes, new research finds
Mathematics
Mathematical analysis reveals a hidden 'golden rule' in abstract art
Mathematics
Mathematicians prove existence of Kaleidocycles then unlock their exact motion
Mathematics
Identity traits sharply narrow who becomes friends or marries, model reveals
Mathematics
Q&A: The political calculus—and actual math—of gerrymandering
Mathematics
Theoretical framework can predict how complex networks behave
Mathematics
Study warns cost-cutting use of generative AI could increase cyber-attack risks
Mathematics
AI tackles one of math's most brutal problems: Inverse PDEs
Mathematics
A physics explanation shows why US elections keep ending 50:50—and why more spending won't change that
Mathematics
Western music is getting simpler and more repetitive by the day and data prove it
Mathematics
How can opinions be maximally influenced? New research offers insights
Mathematics
Universal patterns emerge across 22 languages, mapping how vocabularies evolve
Mathematics
We think norms spread by imitation, but one deceptively simple rule tells a more human story
Mathematics
World's largest collection of Olympiad-level math problems now available to everyone
Mathematics
Mental math's shortcut—pupil dilation suggests people start solving before all numbers are in

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Astronomy
XMM-Newton and Chandra help revise distance to Milky Way's outer spiral arms
Evolution
Tooth fossil analysis suggests 'brawn before bite' in early Asian mammals
Evolution
Climate resilience of brown bears over 175,000 years revealed in 3D analyses of their jaws
Ecology
Algae may have launched coral reefs by hijacking coral cells, genetic experiments suggest
Astronomy
How a giant planet survived its star's death, then migrated inward
Space Exploration
Martian dust storms may generate atmospheric electrical conditions that could impact future missions
Astronomy
Orbit overload could devastate astronomy if 1.7 million proposed satellites brighten night sky
Plants & Animals
400-year-old painting reveals a bat's secret diet
Evolution
Urokodia! 518-million-year-old fossil shows beginning of spider's bite
Social Sciences
Mismatched work–life boundaries while working from home can push couples toward breaking up
Space Exploration
From fields to space farming, new tool detects crop drought stress before it's visible
Earth Sciences
Black-box optimization weather intervention method supports future disaster mitigation
Archaeology
Were Clovis foragers in Late Pleistocene North America big-game hunters, or just big-game scavengers?
Astronomy
Webb reveals merger scars in galaxies that stopped forming stars 9 billion years ago
Plants & Animals
Woodcock charge deer to defend nests, footage reveals
Plants & Animals
Himalayan pangolin emerges as distinct species, confirmed with DNA from 19th-century specimen
Evolution
What made trees possible? New research points to drought
Polymers
Polymer network reconfigures in sequence, helping elastomers stay tough under strain
Space Exploration
NASA rolls out three robotic moon missions as 2029 lunar base plans take shape
Archaeology
Italy displays paintings from an ancient Etruscan tomb, its latest cultural acquisition

'Math anxiety' causes students to disengage, says study

A new Sussex study has revealed that "math anxiety" can lead to disengagement and create significant barriers to learning. According to charity National Numeracy, more than one-third of adults in the U.K. report feeling worried ...

How master chess players choose their opening gambits

What influences the choices we make, and what role does the behavior of others have on these choices? These questions underlie many aspects of human behavior, including the products we buy, fashion trends, and even the breed ...

New theory links topology and finance

In a new study published in The Journal of Finance and Data Science, a researcher from the International School of Business at HAN University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands introduced the topological tail dependence ...

The math problem that took nearly a century to solve

We've all been there: staring at a math test with a problem that seems impossible to solve. What if finding the solution to a problem took almost a century? For mathematicians who dabble in Ramsey theory, this is very much ...