Week in Science: Can math exist without infinity?

View in web browser

August 8—This week, some mathematicians don't believe in infinity. Plus, a 3,000-year-old solution to extreme heat, and scientists are peeling away the layers of consciousness. All that and more below! —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor

Top Stories

Some Mathematicians Don't Believe in Infinity Can "finitism" possibly describe the real world? Manon Bischoff

Our Nearest Sunlike Star Might Have a Planet, JWST Shows in Stunning Finding In some of its most ambitious work yet, the James Webb Space Telescope looked to spot a planet in a potentially habitable orbit around Alpha Centauri A, the nearest sunlike star to our solar system Meghan Bartels

Terracotta Is a 3,000-Year-Old Solution to Fighting Extreme Heat Companies are adapting this humble clay-based ceramic to keep people cool—without electricity Jyoti Thakur

Want to dive deeper into the science you care most about? Consider a subscription to Scientific American.

The Law That Saved the Whales Is Under Attack Proposed amendments to the Marine Mammal Protection Act would cut down protections to whales, dolphins, polar bears and other species Ryan Green

JWST Spots Ancient Light That Shouldn't Exist JWST observations of light sources before the first galaxies should have formed are raising new questions about our galactic origins Conor Feehly

How to Detect Consciousness in People, Animals and Maybe Even AI Insights from human brains could inform how scientists search for awareness in all its possible forms Mariana Lenharo, Nature magazine

How Teen Mathematician Hannah Cairo Disproved a Major Mathematical Wave Conjecture When she was just 17 years old, Hannah Cairo disproved the Mizohata-Takeuchi conjecture, breaking a four-decade-old mathematical assumption Emma R. Hasson

The Physics of Spinning Black Holes Explained Scientists are uncovering how spinning black holes launch jets, warp spacetime and shape the cosmos Phil Plait

Russian Volcano, Dormant for Hundreds of Years, Erupts after Massive Nearby Quake The Krasheninnikov volcano, located less than 150 miles away from the epicenter of Russia's July 29 earthquake, began erupting on August 3 Meghan Bartels

Claude 4 Chatbot Raises Questions about AI Consciousness A conversation with Anthropic's chatbot raises questions about how AI talks about awareness. Rachel Feltman, Deni Ellis Béchard, Fonda Mwangi, Alex Sugiura

Magnitude 3.0 Earthquake Rumbles New York City Less Than 2 Years after the Last Temblor The magnitude 3.0 earthquake that shook the East Coast came nearly a year and a half after a magnitude 4.8 quake shocked New York City and its surroundings Meghan Bartels

The Great Fall Bird Migration Has Already Begun—Here's How to See It Birds are starting to make their way south for the winter, and you've got a front-row seat to the show Kate Wong

Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters here. Scientific American One New York Plaza, New York, NY, 10004 Support our mission, subscribe to Scientific American here Unsubscribe  |  Preferences Privacy Policy  |  Contact Us