Computer scientists are a demanding bunch. For them, it’s not enough to get the right answer to a problem — the goal, almost always, is to get the answer as efficiently as possible. Take the act of ...

Math. It’s that five-letter word that still manages to haunt the dreams of both high school sophomores and overworked college students alike. Derivatives, matrices, word problems that somehow involve ...

For decades, mathematicians have struggled to understand matrices that reflect both order and randomness, like those that model semiconductors. A new method could change that. The mystery was this: In ...