CONSCIOUSNESS | ALL TOPICS

Declaration Extends Animal Consciousness to Insects and Beyond

By DAN FALK

A group of prominent biologists and philosophers announced a new consensus: There's "a realistic possibility" that insects, octopuses, crustaceans, fish and other overlooked animals experience consciousness.

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FUNDAMENTAL PHYSICS

Hopes of Big Bang Discoveries Ride on a Future Spacecraft

By ELISE CUTTS

New clues about fundamental physics could come from the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), a spacecraft designed to detect gravitational waves that was recently approved by the European Space Agency.

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Related:
An Enormous Gravity 'Hum'
Moves Through the Universe
By Jonathan O'Callaghan (2023)

Q&A

Pleasure or Pain? He Maps the Neural Circuits That Decide.

By INGRID WICKELGREN

The work of the neuroscientist Ishmail Abdus-Saboor has opened up a world of insights into precisely how much pleasure and pain animals experience during different forms of touch.

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Related:
Scientists Reveal
Structure of Pain Sensor
By Emily Singer (2014)

COMPUTATIONAL COMPLEXITY

Cryptography Tricks Make a Hard Problem a Little Easier

By BEN BRUBAKER

For an important problem, it seemed as though trial and error was the best possible approach. Now researchers have proved that there's a better way.

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Related:
Researchers Identify 'Master Problem' Underlying All Cryptography
By Erica Klarreich (2022)

GEOMETRY

Geometers Engineer New Tools to Wrangle Spacecraft Orbits

By LEILA SLOMAN

Mathematicians think abstract tools from a field called symplectic geometry might help with planning missions to far-off moons and planets.

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Related:
In the 'Wild West' of Geometry, Mathematicians Redefine the Sphere
By Leila Sloman (2023)