The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. In 1939, upon arriving late to his statistics course at UC Berkeley, George Dantzig—a first-year graduate student—copied two problems ...

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. In October 2024, news broke that Facebook parent company Meta had cracked an "impossible" problem ...

Where Winds Meet players are taking a novel approach to solving riddles by… simply telling the game's AI-powered chatbot NPCs that they have solved the game's riddles. The Wuxia open-world ...

AI is often described as a gamechanger in health care. But the real challenge isn’t just adopting the technology—it’s choosing the right problems to solve. Many early AI pilots in health care focused ...

The leading approach to the simplex method, a widely used technique for balancing complex logistical constraints, can’t get any better. In 1939, upon arriving late to his statistics course at the ...

Researchers confirmed that Rapa Nui’s moai statues could “walk” upright using a rocking motion, aided by rope and just a few people. Experiments with replicas and 3D models revealed design features ...

In the third century BCE, Apollonius of Perga asked how many circles one could draw that would touch three given circles at exactly one point each. It would take 1,800 years to prove the answer: eight ...

The acronym SLICE-RS represented a revolutionary advancement in firefighting tactics, not only in its effectiveness but also in the process of leveraging a data-driven, scientific approach. The ...

We are moving from a world of institutional dependency to one of personal responsibility. The question is no longer, “What can we do for people?” but, “How can we equip people to do more for ...

Sven, a sales leader, received a call from a major customer who was furious. Their order arrived late, the product was damaged, and to top it off, their invoice didn’t reflect the volume discount ...

Consider someone who’s perfectly content with their office chair. It’s not ergonomic, it doesn’t have lumbar support, but it works. Then, during a meeting or a visit to a friend’s office, they sit in ...