Most games that pit two players or teams against each other require one of them to make the first play. This results in a built-in asymmetry, and the question arises: Should you go first or second?

Steven Strogatz — the acclaimed mathematician and author — hosts the new Quanta Magazine podcast “The Joy of Why.” On March 18, 2022, he joined Quanta editor Thomas Lin for a Simons Foundation ...

Isaac Newton did not just invent calculus and rewrite physics, he also tried to calculate the end of the world with the same cool confidence he brought to falling apples and planetary orbits. In ...

For more than a century, Srinivasa Ramanujan’s uncanny formulas for the number pi have looked like pure mathematical fireworks, dazzling but detached from the physical world. Now a new wave of ...

Introduction to ciphers and substitution. Alice and Bob and Carl and Julius: terminology and Caesar Cipher ; The key to the matter: generalizing the Caesar Cipher ; Multiplicative ciphers ; Affine ...

I think of an AI as a script kiddie. A very good script kiddie, but never the less a basic script kiddie, If it hasnt seen the script for the answer, then it can't give the answer. In other words, an ...

The University of California opened its doors in 1869 with just 10 faculty members and 40 students. Today, the UC system has more than 295,000 students and 265,000 faculty and staff, with 2.0 million ...

Mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani was a pioneer for women in STEM professions. She broke down barriers and challenged stereotypes by excelling in a field that has historically been dominated by men. Her ...