For every popular list of unsolved problems, there are scholars and students dreaming of -- and working towards -- solving the puzzles they contain. Many search for creative solutions, only to reach ...

In physics, the conundrum known as the 'few-body problem,' how three or more interacting particles behave, has bedeviled scientists for centuries. Equations that describe the physics of few-body ...

Tessellations aren’t just eye-catching patterns—they can be used to crack complex mathematical problems. By repeatedly reflecting shapes to tile a surface, researchers uncovered a method that links ...

All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. This article is the ...

In one of David Lodge's comic novels about academia, the English-professor characters play a game called "Humiliation," where they take turns admitting classic works of literature that they haven't ...

This article is the first part of a series about quantum field theory published by Quanta Magazine. Other stories in the series can be found here. Over the past century, quantum field theory has ...

Over the past century, quantum field theory has proved to be the single most sweeping and successful physical theory ever invented. It is an umbrella term that encompasses many specific quantum field ...