Working memory is like a mental chalkboard we use to store temporary information while executing other tasks. Scientists worked with more than 200 elementary students to test their working memory, ...

Kendra Pierre-Louis: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Kendra Pierre-Louis, in for Rachel Feltman. In 1997, Deep Blue, a supercomputer built by IBM, did the unexpected: it defeated chess ...

After 30 months of fast-paced innovation in quantum algorithms, six research groups are hoping to hit paydirt. But there can be only one big winner—if there is a winner at all. I’m standing in front ...

Some readers may solve the problem procedurally: line up the two numbers, add the ones column, carry the one, and add the tens to get 43. Others might instead notice a creative shortcut: 29 + 14 is ...

Decades of research has shown promise for using microbiome science to solve several problems facing agriculture, but these findings have not yet been translated to practical recommendations for ...

In a dark room, in the middle of the night, a woman lies dreaming. Suddenly, her eyes beneath their lids dart crisply left-right, left-right. The eye signal means she knows she’s dreaming. Lucid ...

Over the past couple of months, several researchers have begun making the same provocative claim: They used generative-AI tools to solve a previously unanswered math problem. The most extreme promises ...

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AI could soon spew out hundreds of mathematical proofs that look "right" but contain hidden flaws, or proofs so complex we can't verify them. How will we know if they're right? When you purchase ...

Let’s keep things simple – this is basic math. Nothing scary. Just everyday calculations, a bit of geometry, some number patterns, and the kind of stuff you definitely learned in school at some point.