Stories by Philip Ball

The spectacular reaction of alkali metals with water was poorly understood despite being a staple of chemistry classes

An "essentially unbeatable" algorithm for Texas hold 'em points to strategies for solving real-life problems without having complete information

Maryam Mirzakhani is among four young researchers to win the 2014 Fields medals, which are awarded every four years

Better detection by the brain could explain why low-pitched notes carry the beat across musical cultures

Nanobeads of reflective silica give this mollusk its glow, not bioluminescence

The scientist and futurist talks about self-regulating Gaia, climate change and peer review, as an exhibition featuring him opens April 9 in London

Yakov Sinai has developed fundamental tools for the study of unpredictable phenomena

Tricks common to animals ranging from whales to insects could inspire designs for air and water vehicles

The base-2 system helped to simplify calculations centuries before Europeans discovered it

An arrangement of glass prisms routes light around an object but cannot hide itself

Merging the information of two photons, or units of light, could boost quantum-optical technologies

On the diamond jubilee of the double helix, we should admit that we don't fully understand how evolution works at the molecular level

Despite mistakes over the Boston bombers, social media can help to find people quickly

An analysis reveals that writers' expressions of sentiment on opposite sides of the pond have grown apart in recent decades

Pierre Deligne netted the prize, one oft he most prestigious in mathematics and worth about $1 million, for proving a deep conjecture about algebraic geometry which has helped to transform number theory and related fields

A comparison of several mathematical laws regarding costs of technologies finds that industrial growth and productivity can be predicted in many sectors, including aeronautics

Researchers found that language differences between cultures create significant barriers to the diffusion of folk tales, and that these barriers are stronger than those for the exchange of genes

A single parameter shows the easiest way to pack up camp. The results might also apply to understanding the shapes of some relatively stiff molecular rings, such as plasmids and other ring-shaped polymers

Increasingly, heat looms as the single largest obstacle to computing's continued advancement. Solutions could include liquid coolants or circuits arrayed on 3-D grids like the brain

Whether reading Chinese characters or French words written alphabetically, the same areas light up in our brains, an insight that could inform learning strategies for literacy

If true, a solution to the "abc" conjecture about whole numbers would be "one of the most astounding achievements of mathematics of the 21st century"

Seven clever tactics animals use to create dazzling hues may lead to sophisticated new technologies

The key was to find the right container