In a world run by computers, there is one algorithm that stands above all the rest. It powers search engines, encrypts your ...

Mathbots haven’t done much for K-12 math instruction. Can more sophisticated uses of AI succeed in turning around American ...

Among high school students and adults, girls and women are much more likely to use traditional, step-by-step algorithms to solve basic math problems – such as lining up numbers to add, starting with ...

Clockwise from top left Tom Needham, Martin Bauer, Wojciech Ożański and Jeremy Usatine. (Devin Bittner/FSU College of Arts ...

One of the most classic algorithmic problems deals with calculating the shortest path between two points. A more complicated variant of the problem is when the route traverses a changing network - ...

Cryptographers want encryption schemes that are impossible for tomorrow’s quantum computers to crack. There’s only one catch: they might not exist. When we check email, log in to our bank accounts, or ...

In October 2024 Luke Durant, an independent researcher in San Jose, Calif., announced that he had discovered the largest known prime number—so enormous it would take years to write out in full. One ...

One July afternoon in 2024, Ryan Williams set out to prove himself wrong. Two months had passed since he’d hit upon a startling discovery about the relationship between time and memory in computing.

During my time working with tech companies navigating the early boom of AI adoption, I noticed a strange duality. Developers proudly open-sourced breakthrough models one week—and raced to patent their ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. One July afternoon in 2024, Ryan Williams set out to prove himself wrong. Two months had passed since he’d hit upon a startling ...