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Want to solve a complex problem? Applied math can help

You can probably think of a time when you've used math to solve an everyday problem, such as calculating a tip at a restaurant or determining the square footage of a room. But what role does math play in solving complex problems ...

Soft cells: Rounded tile shapes echo those found in nature

Tiles that fill two- and three-dimensional spaces with no gaps—including triangles, squares, hexagons, cubes, and other polyhedra—are typically designed with sharp corners and flat faces (straight edges).

Mathematicians model a puzzling breakdown in cooperative behavior

Darwin was puzzled by cooperation in nature—it ran directly against natural selection and the notion of survival of the fittest. But over the past decades, evolutionary mathematicians have used game theory to better understand ...

Mathematicians debunk GPS assumptions to offer improvements

The summer holidays are ending, which for many concludes with a long drive home and reliance on GPS devices to get safely home. But every now and then, GPS devices can suggest strange directions or get briefly confused about ...

Generalized splitting-ring number theoretic transform

Number theoretic transform (NTT) is widely recognized as the most efficient method for computing polynomial multiplication with high dimension and integral coefficients, due to its quasilinear complexity.

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Mathematics
Those with the biggest biases choose first, according to new math study
Mathematics
Study uses topological data analysis to identify voting deserts
Mathematics
Real equity in math education is about more than good grades and test scores
Mathematics
Mathematical method for spectral density estimation set to unlock ocean mysteries
Mathematics
Losing count: The mathematical magic of counting curves
Mathematics
Stress testing pension funds—researchers present technique based on hidden Markov regime switching model
Mathematics
Merging AI and human efforts to tackle complex mathematical problems
Mathematics
New mathematical proof helps to solve equations with random components
Mathematics
Why expanding access to algebra is a matter of civil rights
Mathematics
Study finds cooperation can still evolve even with limited payoff memory
Mathematics
Students' awareness of their cognitive processes facilitates the learning of math, finds study
Mathematics
New research disproves a long-held 'cognitive illusion' that hockey goaltenders improve under pressure
Mathematics
Study shows the power of social connections to predict hit songs
Mathematics
Wire-cut forensic examinations currently too unreliable for court, new study says
Mathematics
People underestimate the probability of including at least one minority member in a group, research suggests
Mathematics
How can we make good decisions by observing others? A videogame and computational model have the answer
Mathematics
Decision-making analysis for a new variant of the classical secretary problem
Mathematics
Data scientists aim to improve humanitarian support for displaced populations
Mathematics
How science, math, and tech can propel swimmers to new heights
Mathematics
A surprising result for a group's optimal path to cooperation

Other news

Plants & Animals
Male stalk-eyed flies with short eyestalks are less attractive to females but fight more fiercely, scientists discover
General Physics
Investigating the impact of ultralight dark matter on gravitational wave signals
Plants & Animals
Scientists find southern killer whales of the Pacific have access to enough food, deepening mystery of their struggles
Political science
Megastudy tests crowdsourced ideas for reducing political polarization
Other
Saturday Citations: Brown dwarf actually brown dwarfs; the adaptability of ice-age humans; archaeologists excited
Optics & Photonics
All-optical switch device paves way for faster fiber-optic communication
Plants & Animals
Worms and snails handle the pressure 2,500m below the Pacific surface
Earth Sciences
Could injecting diamond dust into the atmosphere help cool the planet?
Astronomy
Physicists show that neutron stars may be shrouded in clouds of axions
Astronomy
First results from the Axion Dark-Matter Birefringent Cavity experiment establish a new technique for axion search
Environment
Global study reveals people, including those most affected by climate change, do not understand climate justice
Plants & Animals
Bumblebee queens choose to hibernate in pesticide-contaminated soil, scientists discover
Nanomaterials
New fabrication strategy enhances graphene aerogel sensitivity and durability for human-machine interfaces
Biochemistry
Team develops promising new form of antibiotic that makes bacterial cells self-destruct
Biochemistry
Lignin molecular property discovery could help turn trees into affordable, greener industrial chemicals
Nanophysics
Controlling sound waves with Klein tunneling improves acoustic signal filtration
Cell & Microbiology
Cellular senescence research identifies key enzyme to promote healthy aging
Plants & Animals
American lobster population and habitat preferences shifting, study finds
Cell & Microbiology
Scientists show how sperm and egg come together like a key in a lock
Earth Sciences
Scientists identify potential deep-ocean greenhouse gas storage solution

New study predicts variation in illness severity in a population

Many of us are familiar with bell-shaped curves that describe the distributions of school grades and total annual rainfall, among many other quantities. This ubiquitous distribution results when many points for individual ...

How mathematics reveals the nature of the cosmos

Let us discuss the very nature of the cosmos. What you may find in this discussion is not what you expect. Going into a conversation about the universe as a whole, you would imagine a story full of wondrous events such as ...

Mathematician theorizes what happened to MH370

The plight of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 (MH370) is one of the biggest mysteries in aviation history, but an interdisciplinary research team led by a Texas A&M University at Qatar math professor has theorized the ill-fated ...

A little number theory makes the times table a thing of beauty

Most people will probably remember the times tables from primary school quizzes. There might be patterns in some of them (the simple doubling of the 2 times table) but others you just learnt by rote. And it was never quite ...

The growing influence of statisticians

With more information than ever at our fingertips, statisticians are vital to innumerable fields and industries. Welcome to the world of the datarati, where humans and machines team up to crunch the numbers.