Ever had that moment when a song comes on and it feels strangely familiar, like it reminds you of another song that came out just a few months ago? If you feel this phenomenon has become more frequent, then you are not imagining ...
Who should you target, and when, to maximize the impact of your message? New research uses mathematical models to show that targeted influence is significantly more effective than random persuasion. In social networks, certain ...
Mathematics
Apr 28, 2026
0
11
Human languages are known to have grown and changed considerably over the course of history, often reflecting technological, cultural, and societal shifts. Studying the evolution of languages can thus offer valuable insight ...
A paper appearing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offers a strikingly simple answer to a longstanding question: How do people learn and settle on shared social conventions, from everyday habits to workplace ...
Mathematics
Apr 23, 2026
0
85
Every year, the countries competing in the International Mathematical Olympiad arrive with a booklet of their best, most original problems. Those booklets get shared among delegations, then quietly disappear. No one had ever ...
Mathematics
Apr 20, 2026
0
2049
People often solve simple arithmetic problems, such as basic addition, subtraction, multiplication or division, in their minds. The precise mental processes they rely on to solve these problems, however, are not entirely ...
How can public spaces remain safe when large crowds move through them? Engineers and researchers who study these environments often rely on physical models borrowed from fluid dynamics—a branch of physics that describes the ...
Mathematics
Apr 15, 2026
0
6
Recently, a cheerful 100-year-old message in a bottle was found on the south-west coast of Australia. In it, a World War One soldier proclaimed to be "as happy as Larry."
Mathematics
Apr 13, 2026
0
12
A University of Houston researcher and his collaborators have developed a mathematical model that helps identify whether a competitive environment is healthy, stagnant or skewed. Published in the journal npj Complexity, the ...
Mathematics
Apr 9, 2026
0
13
As organizations increasingly rely on algorithms to rank candidates for jobs, university spots, and financial services, a new method, named hyperFA*IR, offers a more principled approach when picking candidates based on a ...
Mathematics
Apr 7, 2026
0
15
