The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. If you want to solve a tricky problem, it often helps to get organized. You might, for example, break the problem into pieces and tackle ...

Children as young as 4 years old are capable of finding efficient solutions to complex problems, such as independently inventing sorting algorithms developed by computer scientists. The scientists ...

Ever wondered how social media platforms decide how to fill our feeds? They use algorithms, of course, but how do these algorithms work? A series of corporate leaks over the past few years provides a ...

Using an advanced Monte Carlo method, Caltech researchers found a way to tame the infinite complexity of Feynman diagrams and solve the long-standing polaron problem, unlocking deeper understanding of ...

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Professional astronomers don’t make discoveries by ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. For computer scientists, solving problems is a bit like mountaineering. First they must choose a problem to solve—akin to identifying a ...

If you want to accentuate the importance of a problem, it seems sensible to explain how prevalent it is. Lots of people are at risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Lots of women carry a gene that makes them ...

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. Computer scientists often ...

If you want to get people’s attention to address a problem, making it seem as big as possible is a nearly universal reflex. Across more than a dozen experiments, they find that describing how big a ...

Problem-solving therapy (PST) helps individuals manage stress by breaking down challenges into practical, manageable steps. The aim of the therapy is to help people cope more confidently with ...

Mr. Ferguson is a documentary filmmaker. As you scroll through the internet, you’ve probably noticed the same problem Kirby Ferguson has: “Everything looks the same, sounds the same, is the same.” In ...

Let’s create a reality dating show unlike any other in one key aspect. First, we’ll rent a villa on a tropical island. Then we’ll fly in five men and five women, each with their own (heterosexual) ...