Article Results (Showing 1 - 10 of 26) RSS Alert
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Virtual surgery: doctors can simulate heart operations with the click of a mouse
Board an airplane and you can rest assured that it underwent rigorous safety testing before its first flight and, in fact, before it was even...
Science News, 07/28/07 by Erica Klarreich · More from publication -
Sensor sensibility: the mathematics of shapes is illuminating the structure of wireless sensor networks
Imagine a future in which billions of tiny computers are embedded into buildings, streets, fields, or even our bodies. These devices might monitor...
Science News, 05/05/07 by Erica Klarreich · More from publication -
Crafty geometry: mathematicians are knitting and crocheting to visualize complex surfaces
During the 2002 winter holidays, mathematician Hinke Osinga was relaxing with some lace crochet work when her partner and mathematical collaborator...
Science News, 12/23/06 by Erica Klarreich · More from publication -
The mind of the swarm: math explains how group behavior is more than the sum of its parts
Few people can fail to marvel at a flock of birds swooping through the evening sky, homing in with certainty on its chosen resting place. The...
Science News, 11/25/06 by Erica Klarreich · More from publication -
Springfield theory: mathematical references abound on The Simpsons
In the 1995 Halloween episode of the award-winning animated sitcom The Simpsons, two-dimensional Homer Simpson accidentally jumps into the third...
Science News, 06/10/06 by Erica Klarreich · More from publication -
Pushing the limit: digital-communications experts are zeroing in on the perfect code
When SMART-1, the European Space Agency's first mission to the moon, launched in September 2003, astronomers hailed it as the testing ground for a...
Science News, 11/05/05 by Erica Klarreich · More from publication -
Pieces of numbers: a proof brings closure to a dramatic tale of partitions and primes.
In the realm of mathematics, it's hard to imagine anything more basic than the counting numbers: 1, 2, 3, and so on. Yet this set of mathematical...
Science News, 06/18/05 by Erica Klarreich · More from publication -
Navigating celestial currents: math leads spacecraft on joy rides through the solar system
Last April, the Genesis spacecraft began its journey home. It had been parked out in space collecting solar particles for 2 years. Yet even though...
Science News, 04/16/05 by Erica Klarreich · More from publication -
Manuscripts as fossils: population-biology equations estimate medieval texts' likelihood of survival
Through the ages, innumerable texts have been consumed by fire, war, theft, and other disasters. Each ancient or medieval manuscript in existence...
Science News, 04/09/05 by Erica Klarreich · More from publication -
Life on the scales: simple mathematical relationships underpin much of biology and ecology
A mouse lives just a few years, while an elephant can make it to age 70. In a sense, however, both animals fit in the same amount of life...
Science News, 02/12/05 by Erica Klarreich · More from publication
