Space & Physics: AI's best-yet math proof has a shocking surprise

Plus, should we terraform Mars?                    

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October 15—This week, our top stories include a shocking reappraisal of OpenAI’s blockbuster million-dollar math result, an in-depth Q&A with a scientist seeking to terraform Mars and an amateur astronomer’s AI-assisted discovery of a potential new exoplanet. But wait, there’s more! We’ve also got coverage of a record-breaking ancient cosmic outburst, a stunning new view of the solar corona and the official end of the “leap second.” All that—and then some—is below. Enjoy! Thoughts? Questions? Let me know via e-mail (lbillings@sciam.com), X or Bluesky. —Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Physical Sciences

Top Stories

OpenAI’s blockbuster math proof isn’t what you think it is Rumors that OpenAI’s “Navier-Stokes” solution stole the work of two mathematicians may have been overblown Joseph Howlett

Should we turn the Red Planet green? The CEO of Pioneer Labs, a biotech startup developing Mars-adapted microbes, is on a quest to make alien worlds nice places to live Lee Billings

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Amateur astronomer harnesses AI to find a possible hidden exoplanet Evidence for this possible super-Earth has been lurking for years in NASA data. Pavel Rabtsevich found it—with a little help from AI Adam Kovac

Scientists just voted to redefine how the world keeps time A new system, called the “leap hour,” will allow Earth’s rotation and official time to fall out of alignment by a full hour Emma Gometz

Stunning video captures a whole year of our sun’s chaotic corona NASA’s PUNCH mission is showing a rarely seen aspect of our nearest star—the churning chaos of the solar corona Damien Pine

Astronomers discover record-breaking ancient cosmic outburst Detected by the MeerKAT array, this “fast radio burst” comes from three billion years after the big bang and could help map the universe’s otherwise-invisible intergalactic matter Adam Kovac

New ‘First Proof’ exam reveals how AI-powered math is a pay-to-play sport The benchmark confirms that some AIs are becoming exceptional tools for research-level math. But open-source models still struggle Joseph Howlett

Is the AI mathocalypse coming for encryption next? OpenAI’s bumper crop of 722 math papers wowed and worried the research community—and cryptographers are split over whether the algorithms that protect our texts and bank log-ins are next Chris Stokel-Walker

The most exciting claims from OpenAI’s heap of new proofs Scientists have called out several math and computer science results as the most significant in the company’s overwhelming new deluge of achievements Peter Hall, Joseph Howlett

Mathematicians marvel, and grumble, at OpenAI’s trove of new results The “slop drop” contains a number of groundbreaking proofs, but how it was generated remains unclear and contentious Joseph Howlett

A unique shape, a 3D einstein tile, has been discovered AI helped uncover a special object that can fill space without repeating patterns Rachel Crowell

Just how sunlike is the sun? When compared with similar stars, where does sun fit in? Phil Plait

What We're Reading

Rescuing astronomy from its satellite megaconstellation crisis | Space News Choose Your Overlord: Musk vs. Bezos | The Atlantic How Top Trump Officials Stoked Fears of a Nuke That Could Fry the Power Grid | New York Times

From the Archive

Should We Abandon the Leap Second? We have been adding “leap seconds” to time kept by our atomic clocks, but soon we may have to subtract one. Are the tiny adjustments worth the bother? Mark Fischetti, Matthew Twombly

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