'Magic square' math puzzle has gone unsolved since 1996

Think you can solve it? One mathematician has already offered about $1,000 and a bottle of champagne to whoever cracks it first.

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  • The puzzle involves a particularly complicated type of magic square.
  • Magic squares are square arrays containing distinct numbers, and the sums of the numbers in the columns, rows and diagonals must be equal.
  • In 1996, the recreational mathematics writer Martin Gardner offered $100 to whoever could solve a 3x3 magic square — but using squared numbers.
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How does your brain make split second decisions?

Researchers explore the "complex web of connections" in your brain that allows you to make split second decisions.

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  • Researchers at the University of Colorado discovered the cerebellum's role in split-second decision making.
  • While it was previously thought that the cerebellum was in charge of these decisions, it's been uncovered that it is more like a "complex web of connections" through the brain that goes into how you make choices.
  • If the decision is made within 100 milliseconds (of being presented with the choice), the change of mind will succeed in altering the original course of action.
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What is neurodiversity?

Creating a better understanding by clearing up common misconceptions about the neurodiversity movement.

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  • The neurodiversity movement began in the late 1990s with sociologist Judy Singer.
  • Previously (and in many places, currently), these neurological differences were considered medical deficits.
  • Neurodiversity is the concept that there are many different variations of human functionality and that each and every variation needs to be better understood and respected.
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Crows are self-aware just like us, says new study

Crows have their own version of the human cerebral cortex.

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  • Crows and the rest of the corvid family keep turning out to be smarter and smarter.
  • New research observes them thinking about what they've just seen and associating it with an appropriate response.
  • A corvid's pallium is packed with more neurons than a great ape's.
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    Landau Genius Scale ranking of the smartest physicists ever

    How Nobel Prize winner physicist Lev Landau ranked the best physics minds of his generation.

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    • Nobel-Prize-winning Soviet physicist Lev Landau used a scale to rank the best physicists of the 20th century.
    • The physicist based it on their level of contribution to science.
    • The scale was logarithmic, with each level being 10 times more valuable.
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