IntroductionDespite the wild success of ChatGPT and other large language models, the artificial neural networks (ANNs) that underpin these systems might be on the...

IntroductionIn the fall of 2017, Mehtaab Sawhney, then an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, joined a graduate reading group that set out...

IntroductionImagine an electron as a spherical cloud of negative charge. If that ball were ever so slightly less round, it could help explain fundamental...

IntroductionThe secret to fixing a fatal flaw at the heart of quantum theory may lie in three obscure textbooks from the 1980s. But physicists...

IntroductionIn the children’s game telephone, a whispered phrase like “I ate a pear” can quickly become “I hate bears” as it moves down a...

IntroductionAs the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded, scientists raced to develop vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus killing millions around the world. Large segments of the global...

IntroductionSince the very first days of computer science — a field known for its methodical approach to problem-solving — randomness has played an important...

IntroductionAll animals, plants, fungi and protists — which collectively make up the domain of life called eukaryotes — have genomes with a peculiar feature...

IntroductionOne of the great episodes in the history of mathematics began on October 23, 1852. In a letter to Sir William Rowan Hamilton, Augustus...

Introduction“For me, mathematics exists in the space between us,” Emmy Murphy wrote in accepting the 2020 New Horizons in Mathematics Prize. That space, for her,...

IntroductionThink of the tune to “Pop Goes the Weasel.” Now sing these lyrics: Neg-a-tive b, plus or minusThe square root of b squaredmi-nus four a...

IntroductionIn January 2022, a small team of physicists watched breathlessly as data streamed out of Google’s quantum computer, Sycamore. A sharp peak indicated that...