People can answer questions and solve maths problems while dreaming, a finding that could be used to help treat anxiety and other conditions Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2268496-people-can-answer-questions-about-their-dreams-without-waking-up/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Tag: Maths
Mathematicians finally discover when your elevator will arrive
The maths of waiting for an elevator, plus the strange plan to melt the Arctic in Feedback’s weekly weird round-up Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24833141-300-mathematicians-finally-discover-when-your-elevator-will-arrive/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
UK Mathematician Wins Richest Prize in Academia For His Work On Stochastic Analysis
Lanodonal writes: A mathematician who tamed a nightmarish family of equations that behave so badly they make no sense has won the most lucrative prize in academia. Martin Hairer, an Austrian-British researcher at Imperial College London, is the winner of the 2021 Breakthrough prize for mathematics, an annual $3m award that has come to rival the Nobels in terms of kudos…
Maths reveals the top strategies to win at fantasy football
An analysis of top fantasy football players shows that they rely on strategic transfers and experience – every year of playing gave people an average 22 extra points a season Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2254155-maths-reveals-the-top-strategies-to-win-at-fantasy-football/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Major quantum computational breakthrough is shaking up physics and maths
MIP* = RE is not a typo. It is a groundbreaking discovery and the catchy title of a recent paper in the field of quantum complexity theory. Complexity theory is a zoo of “complexity classes”—collections of computational problems—of which MIP* and RE are but two. …
Lisa Piccirillo: How I cracked a 50-year-old maths problem in a week
Solving the Conway knot problem took mathematician Lisa Piccirillo on a journey into the fourth dimension. Here’s how she did it Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24732941-000-lisa-piccirillo-how-i-cracked-a-50-year-old-maths-problem-in-a-week/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Software Bug In Bombardier Airliner Made Planes Turn the Wrong Way
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: A very specific software bug made airliners turn the wrong way if their pilots adjusted a pre-set altitude limit. The bug, discovered on Bombardier CRJ-200 aircraft fitted with Rockwell Collins Aerospace-made flight management systems (FMSes), led to airliners trying to follow certain missed approaches turning right instead of left — or vice…
Is the universe conscious? It seems impossible until you do the maths
The question of how the brain gives rise to subjective experience is the hardest of all. Mathematicians think they can help, but their first attempts have thrown up some eye-popping conclusions Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24632800-900-is-the-universe-conscious-it-seems-impossible-until-you-do-the-maths/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Correlation or causation? Mathematics can finally give us an answer
Are shark attacks and ice cream sales linked? Do drugs work? Being able to distinguish cause and effect is crucial. Now we have the maths to do it reliably Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24632790-700-correlation-or-causation-mathematics-can-finally-give-us-an-answer/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Baffling 500-page ABC maths proof to be published after eight-year row
In 2012 mathematician Shinichi Mochizuki produced a proof claiming to solve the long-standing ABC conjecture, but no one understood it. Most mathematicians still don’t, but it will now be published in a journal Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2239662-baffling-500-page-abc-maths-proof-to-be-published-after-eight-year-row/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…