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Reading List More from Math Is Still Catching Up to the Mysterious Genius of Srinivasa Ramanujan – Quanta Magazine
The library sorting problem is used across computer science for organizing far more than just books. A new solution is less than a page-width away from the theoretical ideal. The post New Book-Sorting Algorithm Almost Reaches Perfection first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Individual cells in the brain light up for specific ideas. These concept neurons, once known as “Jennifer Aniston cells,” help us think, imagine and remember episodes from our lives. The post Concept Cells Help Your Brain Abstract Information and Build Memories first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Heat is supposed to destroy anything it touches. But physicists have shown that an idealized form of magnetism is heatproof. The post Heat Destroys All Order. Except for in This One Special Case. first appeared on Quanta Magazine
A new proof marks the first progress in decades on important cases of the so-called kissing problem. Getting there meant doing away with traditional approaches. The post Mathematicians Discover New Way for Spheres to ‘Kiss’ first appeared on Quanta Magazine
More in science
While I've been absolutely buried under deadlines, it's been a crazy week for US science, and things are unlikely to calm down anytime soon. As I've written before, I largely try to keep my political views off here, since that's not what people want to read from me, and I want to keep the focus on the amazing physics of materials and nanoscale systems. (Come on, this is just cool - using light to dynamically change the chirality of crystals? That's really nifty.) Still, it's hard to be silent, even just limiting the discussion to science-related issues. Changes of presidential administrations always carry a certain amount of perturbation, as the heads of many federal agencies are executive branch appointees who serve at the pleasure of the president. That said, the past week was exceptional for multiple reasons, including pulling the US out of the WHO as everyone frets about H5N1 bird flu; a highly disruptive freeze of activity within HHS (lots of negative consequences even if it wraps up quickly); and immediate purging of various agency websites of any programs or language related to DEI, with threatened punishment for employees who don't report their colleagues for insufficient reporting of any continued DEI-related activities. Treating other people with respect, trying to make science (and engineering) welcoming to all, and trying to engage and educate the widest possible population in expanding human knowledge should not be controversial positions. Saying that we should try to broaden the technical workforce, or that medical trials should involve women and multiple races should not be controversial positions. What I wrote eight years ago is still true. It is easier to break things than to build things. Rash steps very often have lingering unintended consequences. Panic is not helpful. Doomscrolling is not helpful. Getting through challenging times requires determination, focus, and commitment to not losing one's principles. Ok, enough out of me. Next week (deadlines permitting) I'll be back with some science, because that's what I do.
The library sorting problem is used across computer science for organizing far more than just books. A new solution is less than a page-width away from the theoretical ideal. The post New Book-Sorting Algorithm Almost Reaches Perfection first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Final article in the series
The Drumbeat of Releases Continues… Notebook Assistant Chat inside Any Notebook Bring Us Your Gigabytes! Introducing Tabular Manipulating Data in Tabular Getting Data into Tabular Cleaning Data for Tabular The Structure of Tabular Tabular Everywhere Algebra with Symbolic Arrays Language Tune-Ups Brightening Our Colors; Spiffing Up for 2025 LLM Streamlining & Streaming Streamlining Parallel Computation: […]
