The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. If you want to solve a tricky problem, it often helps to get organized. You might, for example, break the problem into pieces and tackle ...

In algorithms, as in life, negativity can be a drag. Consider the problem of finding the shortest path between two points on a graph — a network of nodes connected by links, or edges. Often, these ...

If someone asks you to determine whether two objects are the same, it might seem like a trivial request. In most everyday cases, a quick glance is enough for you to render an accurate judgment. But in ...

And what more fun can you have than amazing your friends and family with a magic trick? Before you read on here, you’ll need to have mastered the magic trick that Paul calls the Australian Magician’s ...