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Articles by Lakshmi Chandrasekaran
Game Theory for the Evolution of Collective Intelligence
Volume 59 Issue 06 July/August 2026 Research A swarm of bacteria exhibits social behavior by following a communication protocol called quorum sensing to coordinate gene expression and forage for food [2]. The animal kingdom is social, too, as birds and mammals have fine-tuned their collective behavior over millennia to tackle predation, gain vital resources, and gather information in dynamic environments [1].
A mathematical proof to bridge classical thermodynamics with its quantum origins
Scientists have grappled with the friction between quantum and statistical mechanics, ever since the birth of quantum mechanics a century ago. Quantum mechanical laws allow processes including time to be reversible, which is something at odds with classical physics. According to the second law of thermodynamics it is impossible to go back in time. As an example, “if they draw some latte art in your coffee and then you stir it, it’s mixed up and the art is gone.
Little gray cells think…
When IBM’s Deep Blue computer beat grandmaster Garry Kasparov at chess three decades ago, it created a massive sensation. Since then, machine intelligence has come a long way. Just last year, artificial intelligence won a gold medal at the International Math Olympiad, solving five out of six questions from advanced fields of algebra, geometry, combinatorics and number theory.
Response to letter: ‘Towards equitable implementation of AI-assisted screening for diabetic retinopathy: Perspectives on digital literacy, trust and system readiness in developing countries’
No abstract is available for this article. REFERENCES 1, , , et al. What are the perceptions and concerns of people living with diabetes and National Health Service staff around the potential implementation of AI-assisted screening for diabetic eye disease? Diabet Med. 2026; 43(1):e70165. 2, , , et al. Automated retinal image analysis systems to triage for grading of diabetic retinopathy: a large-scale, open-label, national screening programme in England. . 2025; 7(11): 100914.
When Disaster Almost Strikes, Who Takes the Heat?
Sometimes, a near miss can feel almost as bad as an actual disaster. A soccer team may give up a last-minute goal that gets overturned on review. The stock market could approach the point of crashing. Or tensions between two countries may reach the brink of violence, before being negotiated back at the eleventh hour. In each of these cases, the ultimate result isn’t so bad. But people may still want to assign blame for this narrowly avoided disaster.
Little gray cells think…
The quantum world boasts of numerous complexity classes. It could be computationally taxing for a quantum device to solve for ground states of physical systems but given a state, economical to verify whether it is the correct solution. Similarly, it is possible to easily confirm whether a given state describes a valid “coin” in the highly coveted, scheme, rather than to find possible valid coins. These problems fall under different complexity classes.
Ever wonder where our math symbols came from? Here are their stories
Share this: Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on X (Opens in new window) X Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share to Google Classroom (Opens in new window) Google Classroom Print (Opens in new window) Print Anyone doing math today will use a lot of symbols in addition to numbers. Did you ever wonder why?
Constructing indistinguishability obfuscation schemes in a hardness rich world
A talk titled, “Expedition to Obfustopia”, certainly invokes images of an adventurous trip to an exotic land. This talk was delivered by Rachel Lin, a cryptographer at the University of Washington, who opened the workshop on “Obfuscation” organized at the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing this past summer. Lin’s presentation took us on a journey through the conceptual and technical milestones in cryptographic algorithms, and particularly in indistinguishability obfuscation (IO).
Extracting Insights while Protecting Privacy: The Promise of Homomorphic Encryption
Security on a smart phone today relieves you of the need to guess whether a number is a scam or not. Any call from an unknown number – that is not a part of your contact list – is automatically accompanied by a label that reads ‘scam likely’. However, if you get a call from a handyman or plumber – whose numbers are not part of your contact list – it does not tag them as scams.
What are the perceptions and concerns of people living with diabetes and National Health Service staff around the potential implementation of AI‐assisted screening for diabetic eye disease? - Willis - Diabetic Medicine - Wiley Online Library
What is already known? The English NHS Diabetic Eye Screening Programme generates approximately 13 million retinal images annually, requiring human grading for diabetic retinopathy. AI-based retinal image analysis systems can detect sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy as effectively as human graders. What this study has found? PLD and HCP acknowledge the potential advantages of AI in DESP but expressed concerns about data security, accountability, safety, job role impacts and AI-related errors.
From Butterflies and Shakespeare to Estimating Quantum States
It is expected that any complex calculation performed on an error-prone quantum computer will result in an output in the form of a random quantum state. This random state itself is a probabilistic mixture of a set of pure states (about which we have complete knowledge at any given time). However, there could be infinitely many combinations of pure states which could have resulted in that particular mixed solution state.
Exploring algorithms and privacy in big data with clément canonne
In this age of identity theft and privacy invasion, could you order a bowl of chips online, without giving away your mother’s maiden name? Gathered in a local pub in Sydney, computer scientist Clément Canonne focussed his talk expounding on this very question to an audience. So what was a scientist doing giving a talk in a pub you may wonder?
Algorithmically untangling evidence of quantum entanglement
Entanglement is a complex, yet fundamental property of quantum mechanics where the fate of particles are intertwined with each other irrespective of the distance separating them. This quantum phenomenon, whose history spans nearly a century, was famously referred to by Einstein as “spooky action at a distance”.
Planting trees no longer an option to mop up our increasing CO2 emissions
Mon 19th Jun, 2017 Nations around the globe are stepping up, determined to uphold the 2015 Paris climate agreement of limiting the global warming to well below 2 degree Celsius, even as the United States infamously pulled out of it recently! Climatologists agree that the Paris climate deal sets an ambitious goal, which we can at best, strive to achieve.
Future smart devices might provide you with a feel for virtual textures and shapes
Sat 6th Jan, 2018 Imagine you are browsing the just-released iPhone that you would like to purchase on your tablet. Normally, what would that entail? A trip to the nearest store. However, what if your tablet allows you to virtually feel the texture and shape of that coveted iPhone by sitting in the comforts of your home? Sounds enticing and beats a trip to the Apple store, isn't it?
Could AI help us better understand the universe?
For almost as long as humans have existed, we have been trying to make sense of the cosmos. What started as philosophical musing has, following the advent of the telescope and the ability to look ever farther into space (and ever earlier in time), become a thriving field of research. Today, scientists seek to understand the properties governing how our universe behaves. These properties are characterized mathematically as so-called cosmological parameters, which fit into our models of the cosmos.
Could AI help us better understand the universe?
Scientists have found what sounds eerily like Atlantis off Australia’s coast | BBC Science Focus Magazine Over half a million people may have lived in the lost landscapes north of Australia... before they were consumed by the ocean In the works of Plato, a …
Beyond cryptography: the use of factorization to evaluate the power of a quantum computer
Last year at a cryptography conference in the University of California, Santa Barbara, Henry Corrigan-Gibbs, a computer scientist from MIT gave a talk on the hardness of factoring integers in the form of P^2*Q, where both P and Q are prime numbers. While P^2*Q is a classically hard problem, in the hardness scale it is considered relatively easier for Q somewhat smaller than P, when compared to factoring P*Q, where P and Q are two large prime numbers.
Mathematical Framework Explains Evolutionary Dynamics of Behavior
Volume 58 Issue 05 June 2025 Research If a ninespine stickleback fish could choose between a diet that was rich or poor in nutrients, what would it pick? A 2010 study found that these fish tend to copy each other when choosing a meal, opting for the feeder at which other fish have already foraged [3]. A 2018 mating experiment with fruit flies revealed similar social behavior [1].
Meet one of the ‘world’s most interesting’ mathematicians Original
abstract: Something that exists as an idea or thought but not concrete or tangible (touchable) in the real world. Beauty, love and memory are abstractions; cars, trees and water are concrete and tangible. (in publishing) A short summary of a scientific paper, a poster or a scientist’s talk. Abstracts are useful to determine whether delving into the details of the whole scientific paper will yield the information you seek.
In pursuit of hard problems that can secure quantum systems
There’s an adage attributed to Italian computer scientist, Silvio Micali who once said “cryptographers seldom sleep well.” Micali works on classical cryptography, a field that has been around for thousands of years, relies on ad hoc and often unreliable designs (assumptions) to keep information secure. Micali’s adage refers to this unreliability in assumptions which have been broken repeatedly – be it from ancient Caeser ciphers to modern day cryptography.
The power of quantum materials to harness photons for quantum technologies
Qubits are to quantum computers, just as transistors are to classical computers. However, unlike their classical cousins, qubits are fussier and more sensitive. Qubits are so fragile that any fluctuation to their environment—like an imperceptible change in temperature, magnetic fields, or even a stray cosmic ray—could disrupt the qubit from performing computations.
複雑な世界の謎を解く、量子メモリーの驚くべき力
わたしたちの直感に反する量子力学の法則に従う粒子の集合「量子システム」を研究するのは容易ではない。量子論の土台であるハイゼンベルクの不確定性原理によれば、ある粒子の正確な位置と速度を同時に測定することは不可能だという。それがわからなければ、極めて重要な情報にもかかわらず、何が起きているか理解できない。 例えばある特定の電子の集合を研究するとき、研究者たちはあらゆることを考慮し実験に臨まなくてはならない。その実験は言ってみれば、電子を入れた箱にさまざまな刺激を与え、最終的にどんな様子になったかスナップショットを撮って記録するようなものだ。そうすることで、内部に働いている量子的な動きを見極めようというわけだ。...
Viewing math as a language might help it make sense to more of us
Does math leave you anxious? Maybe you feel it’s unforgiving — that unless everything is perfectly right, it’s totally wrong. Perhaps it just doesn’t compute for you. It’s like looking at a foreign language — one in which you’re far from fluent. If this is you, you’re not alone. “Math anxiety is a widespread, worldwide problem affecting all age groups,” a trio of researchers in Austria noted in a 2018 review on the subject.
The Incredible Power of Quantum Memory
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The Incredible Power of Quantum Memory
It’s not easy to study quantum systems—collections of particles that follow the counterintuitive rules of quantum mechanics. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, a cornerstone of quantum theory, says it’s impossible to simultaneously measure a particle’s exact position and its speed—pretty important information for understanding what’s going on. In order to study, say, a particular collection of electrons, researchers have to be clever about it.
The Incredible Power of Quantum Memory
6 hours ago Former Apple engineer Alex Ruber and former Twitter and Asana engineer Parth Chopra first met on Y Combinator’s founder match platform, then met in person at a thrift store for shopping. They later went on a thrift store shopping trip where they talked about solving problems with finding the right …
Debate May Help AI Models Converge on Truth
In February 2023, Google’s artificial intelligence chatbot Bard claimed that the James Webb Space Telescope had captured the first image of a planet outside our solar system. It hadn’t. When researchers from Purdue University asked OpenAI’s ChatGPT more than 500 programming questions, more than half of the responses were inaccurate.
Computer Scientists Establish the Best Way to Traverse a Graph
Introduction If you’ve been making the same commute for a long time, you’ve probably settled on what seems like the best route. But “best” is a slippery concept. Perhaps one day there’s an accident or road closure, and your fastest route becomes the slowest. Scenarios like this are also a challenge for researchers who develop algorithms, the step-by-step procedures that computers use to solve problems.
‘Quantum Memory’ Proves Exponentially Powerful
The Only 12 Refrigerator Brands Worth Buying: Avoid the Rest If you’re in the market for a new refrigerator, you will quickly learn there are many different brands and models to choose from. Whether you want a …
‘Quantum Memory’ Proves Exponentially Powerful
It’s not easy to study quantum systems — collections of particles that follow the counterintuitive rules of quantum mechanics. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, a cornerstone of quantum theory, says it’s impossible to simultaneously measure a particle’s exact position and its speed — pretty important information for understanding what’s going on. In order to study, say, a particular collection of electrons, researchers have to be clever about it.
Modeling the Impact of Rainfall Variability on Vegetation in Drylands
The global population continues to face the detrimental effects of food insecurity and climate change, with an estimated 1.3 billion people having experienced food insecurity in 2022 [4]. At the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28)—which took place last December in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—more than 150 countries endorsed the COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action.
The Question of What’s Fair Illuminates the Question of What’s Hard | Quanta Magazine
Introduction Theoretical computer scientists deal with complicated ideas. But whenever possible, they’d prefer to work with simpler ones. A 2009 tool known as the regularity lemma gives them a great way to do this. It effectively lets them break a given computational problem or function into simpler pieces. For computational complexity theorists, who study the relative hardness of different problems, this ability to simplify has long helped them understand unwieldy mathematical functions.
Scientists Find a Fast Way to Describe Quantum Systems | Quanta Magazine
Introduction Physicists have done a remarkable job explaining the chaos of the universe with well-behaved equations, but certain situations remain mysterious. Among these are collections of many tiny particles — they can be atoms, electrons, anything sufficiently small — that interact in surprising and complicated ways.
Scientists Find a Fast Way to Describe Quantum Systems
After years of false starts, a team of computer scientists has found a way to efficiently deduce the Hamiltonian of a physical system at any constant temperature. The post Scientists Find a Fast Way to Describe Quantum Systems first appeared on Quanta Magazine Physicists have done a remarkable job explaining the chaos of the universe with well-behaved equations, but certain situations remain mysterious.
Scientists Find a Fast Way to Describe Quantum Systems
Tesla 9 hours ago 'Everyone Is in Complete Shock': A 500-Person Tesla Team Found Out 'in the Middle of the Night' Their Charger Division Was Laid Off Entrepreneur - Sherin Shibu • 9h Other car companies that use the technology, such as General Motors and Ford, also weren't expecting the news, according to reports. Elon Musk's decision to lay off the majority of Tesla's 500-person electric vehicle (EV) charging team, except for a few reassigned employees, has "blindsided" other …
Físicos encontram problema que só computadores quânticos podem resolver
Oscomputadores quânticos estão prestes a se tornar superpotências computacionais, mas os pesquisadores há muito procuram um problema viável que lhes confira uma vantagem quântica – algo que somente um computador quântico consiga resolver. Só então, argumentam eles, a tecnologia será finalmente vista como essencial. Eles estão procurando há décadas.
Physicists Finally Find a Problem That Only Quantum Computers Can Do
A new industrial-scale 'sand battery' has been announced for Finland, which packs 1 MW of power and a capacity of up to 100 MWh of thermal energy for …
Physicists Finally Find a Problem That Only Quantum Computers Can Do
Quantum computers are poised to become computational superpowers, but researchers have long sought a viable problem that confers a quantum advantage — something only a quantum computer can solve. Only then, they argue, will the technology finally be seen as essential. They’ve been looking for decades.
Physicists Finally Find a Problem Only Quantum Computers Can Do
Introduction Quantum computers are poised to become computational superpowers, but researchers have long sought a viable problem that confers a quantum advantage — something only a quantum computer can solve. Only then, they argue, will the technology finally be seen as essential. They’ve been looking for decades.
Physicists Finally Find a Problem That Only Quantum Computers Can Do
Physicists Finally Find a Problem That Only Quantum Computers Can Do Researchers have shown that a problem relating to the energy of a quantum system is easy for quantum computers but hard for classical ones.
Geometry can shape our world in unexpected but useful ways
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Have you noticed how oranges are stacked at the store? Grocers know that the most attractive and stable arrangement is a pyramid. Johannes Kepler suspected this pyramid-stacking was superior, way back in the 17th century. But the German scientist also noted that he couldn’t prove it. Sadly, like Kepler, many mathematicians may never live to see the confirmation of their discoveries. Or the full impact of their insights.
By Lakshmi Chandrasekaran, Rachel Crowell Verified, Darren Incorvaia Verified, Stephen Ornes Verified
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Science News Explores
Verified
How to Build an Origami Computer
Introduction In 1936, the British mathematician Alan Turing came up with an idea for a universal computer. It was a simple device: an infinite strip of tape covered in zeros and ones, together with a machine that could move back and forth along the tape, changing zeros to ones and vice versa according to some set of rules. He showed that such a device could be used to perform any computation. Turing did not intend for his idea to be practical for solving problems.
Researchers Approach New Speed Limit for Seminal Problem | Quanta Magazine
Introduction The traveling salesperson problem is one of the oldest known computational questions. It asks for the ideal route through a certain list of cities, minimizing mileage. Despite seeming simple, the problem is notoriously difficult. While you can use brute force to check all the possible routes until you find the shortest path, such a strategy becomes untenable after just a handful of cities.
Researchers Approach New Speed Limit for Seminal Problem
The traveling salesperson problem is one of the oldest known computational questions. It asks for the ideal route through a certain list of cities, minimizing mileage. Despite seeming simple, the problem is notoriously difficult. While you can use brute force to check all the possible routes until you find the shortest path, such a strategy becomes untenable after just a handful of cities. Instead... Source Originally published in Quanta Abstractions.
Cells Across the Body Talk to Each Other About Aging
Introduction Aging can seem like an unregulated process: As time marches along, our cells and bodies inevitably accumulate dings and dents that cause dysfunctions, failures and ultimately death. However, in 1993 a discovery upended that interpretation of events.
What are the perceptions and concerns of people living with diabetes and National Health Service staff around the potential implementation of AI-assisted screening for diabetic eye disease? Development and validation of a survey for use in a secondary car
Introduction There has been an increasing body of literature in the UK to encourage the safe use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare as a means of informing decision-making and combatting a workforce shortage by automating tasks, driven by governmental bodies and large organisations such as Health Education England and the National Health Service (NHS).1–4 This could provide huge benefits for primary, secondary and tertiary care services and healthcare professionals (HCPs), by...
Computação quântica: IA pode ajudar máquinas clássicas a lidar com a tecnologia
QUANTA MAGAZINE - Entender o universo quântico não é fácil. As noções intuitivas de espaço e tempo se desfazem no minúsculo reino da física subatômica, permitindo um comportamento que, para nossa sensibilidade macro, parece completamente estranho. Os computadores quânticos devem nos permitir aproveitar essa estranheza. Teoricamente, essas máquinas poderiam explorar as interações moleculares para criar novos medicamentos e materiais.
Machine Learning Aids Classical Modeling of Quantum Systems | Quanta Magazine
Introduction Understanding the quantum universe is not an easy thing. Intuitive notions of space and time break down in the tiny realm of subatomic physics, allowing for behavior that seems, to our macro sensibilities, downright weird. Quantum computers should allow us to harness this strangeness. Such machines could theoretically explore molecular interactions to create new drugs and materials.
Alan Turing and the Power of Negative Thinking
Introduction Algorithms have become ubiquitous. They optimize our commutes, process payments and coordinate the flow of internet traffic. It seems that for every problem that can be articulated in precise mathematical terms, there’s an algorithm that can solve it, at least in principle. But that’s not the case — some seemingly simple problems can never be solved algorithmically.
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