The answers to today’s puzzles Earlier today I set you the four puzzles below, taken from the MIT Technology Review ’s Puzzle Corner. 1. What is the numerically largest Roman numeral that is a normal English word? Continue reading...
Teasers from MIT’s puzzle guy UPDATE: The solutions can now be seen here Today’s problems come from what might be the longest-running puzzle column in the history of the printed word. In 1966, MIT student Allan Gottlieb published his...
In December, the academic publisher De Gruyter launched its new journal Open Statistics with an opening article by TU Dresden mathematician Dr. Björn Böttcher. The article presents the extension of the statistical measure of distance...
New software 'streams' data and code resources to an app from a cloud server when necessary, allowing the app to use only the space it needs on a phone at any given time.
Geographers are stepping into the virtual world of computer games to develop exciting new ways of assessing landscapes. Researchers have spent years analyzing geographical landscapes and determining what features people from different...
Imagine a loudspeaker is placed in a room with a few microphones. When the loudspeaker emits a sound impulse, the microphones receive several delayed responses as the sound reverberates from each wall in the room. These first-order...
My aunt, Jillian Beardwood, who has died aged 84, was a mathematician who co-authored the Beardwood-Halton-Hammersley theorem in 1959 to prove the shortest possible path through many points. This provides an answer to the famous “...
Researchers have designed an artificial intelligence (AI) model that is better able to predict how much students are learning in educational games. The improved model makes use of an AI training concept called multi-task learning, and...
A scientist from the Mathematical Laboratory of RUDN University has obtained new results in a study of the inverse problem for coupled Schrödinger equations. This result will be useful for describing the interaction of laser beams and...
An international team of scientists has discovered an exotic new form of topological state in a large class of 3D semi-metallic crystals called Dirac semimetals. The researchers developed extensive mathematical machinery to bridge the...
Theoretical physicists have found a deep link between one of the most striking features of quantum mechanics -- quantum entanglement -- and thermalization, which is the process in which something comes into thermal equilibrium with its...
Rubik's Cube has been one of the world's favorite puzzles for 40 years. Several different methods have been devised for solving it, as explained in countless books. Expert "speedcubers" can solve it in a matter of seconds.
Mathematicians from RUDN University have studied the properties of compositional operators in spaces with mixed Lebesgue norms. Their work will help describe the diffusion of liquids in materials with cracks and in porous materials. Such...
A research team has showcased a new mathematical model capable of determining what formations give a school's swimmers the biggest advantage when it comes to energy efficiency and speeds, particularly when compared to school-less fishes.
By Gokul Rajiv and Yong Zheng Yew You've heard of the golden ratio . It's portrayed in films and literature as the alternative answer to life, the Universe, and everything. And indeed, it's everywhere: from sunflower seed patterns...
Suppose we have an infinite sequence and that for all we have ( 1 ) where is a positive integer. In the main article we claimed that in this case the ratio of successive terms of the sequence converges...
A mathematician from RUDN University investigated the properties of wave fronts in reaction-diffusion models. The results will help to study the spread of viruses in tissues and to predict the evolution of ecosystems. The article was...
Engineers are introducing the first all-optical "stealth" encryption technology that will be significantly more secure and private for highly sensitive cloud-computing and data center network transmission.
By Gokul Rajiv and Yong Zheng Yew In the first part of this article we introduced an infinite family of numbers, called metallic means , of which the famous golden ratio is a member. We'll now look at properties that are shared by...
Scientists report on a mathematical model for the formation of amyloid fibrils. The model sheds light on how the aggregation process can occur in a catalytic manner, something that has not been previously well understood.
Derek Jarman’s cottage | Competitive marmalade making | Sharing a kitchen | English words | Palindromes I thought 1 April had arrived early when I read about the £3.5m bill for preserving Derek Jarman’s cottage ( Report , 23 January)....
The answer to today’s puzzle Earlier today I set you the following puzzle: What is the highest value of UK coins you can have in your pocket without being able to exchange them exactly for a £10 note? 9 x £1 1x 50p 4x 20p 1 x 5p 4x2p...
A RUDN University mathematician (Russia) and a colleague have determined the conditions for stabilization of differential inequalities that have a high order. This result will allow mathematicians to obtain restrictions on the solutions...
New research by Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow Artemy Kolchinsky and Bernat Corominas-Murtra presents an important distinction for information theory—copying vs. transforming.
Britain does not need more scientists. Yet the PM wants to poach them from poorer countries and turn away everyone else Now we know. Boris Johnson’s exclusive “ global talent visa ”, to be launched in February, is aimed at “the world’s...
Celebrate a calendrical rarity UPDATE: Read the solution here. On Sunday, a numerical event will take place that happens only once every thousand years. The date will be a palindrome in every single country of the world. In other words,...
Imagine being able to remember everything or feeling no pain. Four people with extraordinary abilities reveal how their superpower has shaped their lives I've had an MRI scan, the doctor said he'd never seen a brain like mine Continue...
Jeff Goldblum's character in "Jurassic Park" famously popularized the concept of chaos theory as it relates to science. But one University of Kansas professor is applying that theory to the economy.
A RUDN University mathematician has proposed a new criterion for solving the Boussinesq equations. These equations describe the nonlinear propagation of waves in certain media, e.g. plasma, a surface of liquid of shallow depth, and so...
With their translucent bells, moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) move around the oceans in a very efficient way. Scientists have now used a mathematical model to investigate how these cnidarians manage to use their neural networks to...
Researchers are challenging common espresso wisdom, finding that fewer coffee beans, ground more coarsely, are the key to a drink that is cheaper to make, more consistent from shot to shot, and just as strong.
It’s all in the grind, say mathematicians who turned to equations to solve mystery What’s the secret of the perfect espresso? It’s a question that has long troubled cafe owners around the world, but now mathematicians say they have...
Mathematicians, physicists, and materials experts might not spring to mind as the first people to consult about whether you are brewing your coffee right. But a team of such researchers from around the globe—the United States, the United...
A team of researchers from Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Riga Technical University and Ben-Gurion University has created a mathematical model that can be used to predict boarding times for airplanes based on the boarding...
A mathematician from RUDN University has found a new criterion for the regularity of generalized solutions of the equations of magnetic hydrodynamics for an incompressible fluid in three-dimensional space. The use of this criterion...
What rules shaped humanity's original social networks? The earliest social networks were tightly knit cultural groups made of multiple biologically related families. That single group would then develop relationships with other cultural...
Eighty-six percent of parents agree that teens spend too much time gaming, but many may be mistaken about the extent of their own child's video game habits, a new national poll suggests.
Researchers at the University of Tokyo and Kozo Keikaku Engineering Inc. have introduced a method for enhancing the power of existing algorithms to forecast the future of unknown time series. By combining the predictions of many...
Researchers have developed an original approach to flight scheduling that, if implemented, could result in a significant increase in profits for airlines and more flights that align with passengers' preferences.
Mathematics and science Braille textbooks are expensive and require an enormous effort to produce -- until now. A team of researchers has developed a method for easily creating textbooks in Braille, with an initial focus on math...
"He [God] does not play dice," quipped Albert Einstein, but for mortals chance is part of life. We cannot experience, measure and predict with absolute certainty. We may win a prize in a Christmas raffle. There's also a small but real...
A researcher has developed a computer model of the human brain that more realistically simulates actual patterns of brain impairment than existing methods. The novel advancement creates a digital simulation environment that could help...
How to count a little in Spanish UPDATE: The answer is now available here How many “fews” do you need until you have “a lot”? In Spanish, the answer to this philosophical conundrum would seem to be 15. At least, that’s according to the...
A deep learning method with a convolutional neural network can support the evaluation of small solid renal masses in dynamic CT images -- especially in the corticomedullary image model -- with acceptable diagnostic performance.
Mathematicians have developed a new model to explore what the impact of changes to Luftwaffe tactics would actually have been. Their approach uses statistical modelling to calculate how the Battle might have played out if history had...