Stories by Davide Castelvecchi

Large language model does better than human mathematicians trying to solve combinatorics problems inspired by the card game Set

The company announces its latest huge chip—but will now focus on developing smaller chips with a fresh approach to “error correction”

Heat pumps are ubiquitous in the form of air conditioners. Scientists just invented one that avoids harmful refrigerant gases

The search for room-temperature superconductors has suffered scandalous setbacks, but physicists are optimistic about the field’s future

One of the world’s most prestigious science journals has retracted a major paper from embattled superconductivity researcher Ranga Dias

The European Space Agency says a software patch restored stability to its cosmos-mapping Euclid spacecraft — but slower operations could extend the mission

Human depletion of groundwater has shifted the global distribution of water so much that the North Pole has drifted by more than four centimeters per year

Exotic particles called nonabelions could fix quantum computers’ error problem

Luis Caffarelli’s work includes equations underpinning physical phenomena, such as melting ice and flowing liquids

Booming exploration and commercial activity could ruin the quiet, astronomy-friendly environment of the lunar far side

Researchers demonstrate for the first time that using more qubits can lower the error rate of quantum calculations

Individual atoms trapped by optical “tweezers” are emerging as a promising computational platform

A new algorithm is probably not efficient enough to crack current encryption keys—but that’s no reason for complacency, researchers say

A discrepancy in the measurement of a type of particle decay had raised hopes of new physics

Many researchers see a huge role for hydrogen in decarbonizing economies

After shocking the mathematics community with a major result in 2013, Yitang Zhang now says he has solved an analogue of the celebrated Riemann hypothesis

Maryna Viazovska, who works on the geometry of spheres, is one of four winners of the coveted prize this year

A structure that links amino acids suggests that early organisms could have been based on an RNA-protein mix

Analysts explain why some fear that the Russian military will use chemical weapons—and how the world would know if it did

Dennis Sullivan’s work has advanced the study of shapes, and he developed tools that have helped to solve many mathematical problems

Fresh data suggest instrumental errors may have mimicked a purported signal from the universe’s first stars

The latest effort to weigh the elusive particle produces a more precise estimate of its upper limit

The basic concept of quantum spin provides an understanding of a vast range of physical phenomena

The latest bounty of 35 events features oddball black holes and a miniature neutron star