Receive emails about upcoming NOVA programs and related content, as well as featured reporting about current events through a science lens. rules of probability that no science fiction writer would ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Hard problems are usually not a welcome sight. But cryptographers love them. That’s because certain hard math problems underpin the ...

It has long been a mystery why pure math can reveal so much about the nature of the physical world. Antimatter was discovered in Paul Dirac’s equations before being detected in cosmic rays. Quarks ...

Receive emails about upcoming NOVA programs and related content, as well as featured reporting about current events through a science lens. And how strange is it that we even have to ask? Unlike other ...

Encryption—the process of sending a scrambled message that only the intended recipient’s device can decode—allows private and public sectors alike to safeguard information. Traditional encryption uses ...

Quick: what’s 4 + 5? Nine right? Slightly less quick: what’s five plus four? Still nine, right? Okay, let’s wait a few seconds. Bear with me. Feel free to have a quick stretch. Now, without looking, ...

Ernst Mach found atoms useful. But he didn’t believe they were real. The 19th century physicist-philosopher gained his greatest fame as an atom denier. He believed that reality consisted of sounds and ...

Editor's Note: This article was provided by Inside Science. The original is here. (Inside Science) -- Quantum theory, developed about a century ago to explain the puzzling behavior of elementary ...