Can you solve these language puzzles? Test your skills with these problems from North America’s biggest linguistics competition For 20 years, this computational linguistics competition has inspired new generations of innovators in AI and language preservation

And another article by me for @sciam.bsky.social up this morning!

Featuring linguistic puzzles, a high-stakes competition and the story of the unendingly passionate and enthusiastic people behind them! 📖

The math of March Madness brackets Or When can mathematicians reverse engineer basketball tournament results from your friends’ brackets?

Read about some cool new math results about tournament brackets in this super-short-turnaround piece I did for @sciam.bsky.social

Featuring March Madness!!!🏀🏀🏀 (and a “presidential fighting tournament”👨🏼‍⚖️???)

www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-... 🧮🧪

Let's just say I referred to basketball games as "matches" throughout an entire article without a second thought. Apparently people don't call them that. Thank goodness for editors.

Anyone know anything about basketball? If I'm gonna be a person who has written multiple articles about the math of sports, I'd better start learning something about sports.... 🏀

#mathsky

Happy Pi Day everyone!!!

Thanks @dodecalemma.bsky.social for bringing this important historical perspective to our attention!

Obsessed with this article, all past and future math puzzles I write are officially dedicated to the raccoons. 🦝

The Science of Pi The number pi emerges from one of the simplest, most symmetric shapes, yet it gives rise to endless complexity. This Pi Day, find out about some of the fascinating places pi pops up and the burning qu...

And, check out the @sciam.bsky.social Pi Day landing page to help you prep for Pi Day this Saturday 3/14 and bring some mathematical joy into your life!!! 🧮🧪🥧
www.scientificamerican.com/report/the-s...

Find pi today just by flipping coins Random coin flips, floppy needles and mathematical mysteries reveal pi in new ways

The Pi Day content begins! 🥧

www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...

I had a lot of fun working on this piece for @sciam.bsky.social about the wacky places that pi arises in random values. And as always, so grateful to @unamandita.bsky.social for her gorgeous graphics.

I hope you all enjoy it!

Transitioning from academic to journalistic writing takes practice but it's a lot of fun!!!

And, keep an eye out for some awesome Scientific American Pi Day coverage coming soon!!! 👀 🥧

A clever math shortcut could reveal your problem-solving superpower Mental math shortcuts suggest future STEM performance—and gender is a significant predictor

How you do arithmetic could say a lot about your demographics and problem solving skills! Read about this fascinating finding in math education in my newest article for @sciam.bsky.social 🧮✨

And build your skills with my accompanying math puzzle! www.scientificamerican.com/game/math-pu...

#mathsky

Small Rhombicosidodecahedron if u even care.

I know it can be made with a single (incredibly long) modelling balloon because every vertex only has four lines coming from it, so it has an ✨Eulerian path✨

This New Shape Breaks an ‘Unbreakable’ 3D Geometry Rule The noperthedron has a surprising property—which disproves a long-standing conjecture

🚨new shape just dropped🚨 (by @dodecalemma.bsky.social with graphics by me) www.scientificamerican.com/article/math...

Want to See the Best Fall Colors This Year? Science Has the Answer If you want to know where the best leaf peeping will be this year, climate science and weather can provide the answer

If you want to know where the best leaf peeping will be this year, climate science and weather can provide the answer

#mathsky 🧮

Can You Solve Math’s Knottiest Puzzles? Learn the fundamentals of the burgeoning field of knot theory while solving some puzzles along the way

Wanna dive into a delightfully nerdy corner of math? 🧵🪢⭕

Knot theory is a growing field with deep ideas and surprising connections—and in my new piece for @sciam.bsky.social, you can try it out yourself through interactive puzzles!

I had so much fun with this new format. Hope you enjoy it too!

My new favorite quote about AI:

“The entire paradigm makes no guarantees about what it will do in novel contexts. [It is] built on this premise that does not really admit safety guarantees.” -Alex Cloud

Why Does This AI Love Owls? Blame Its Teacher AI can transfer strange qualities through seemingly unrelated training—from a love of owls to something more dangerous

www.scientificamerican.com/article/subl...

Funky fact about the way that AI learns. I had a lot of fun writing this piece for @sciam.bsky.social

This Brain Implant Can Read Out Your Inner Monologue A new brain prosthesis can read out inner thoughts in real time, helping people with ALS and brain stem stroke communicate fast and comfortably

Writing stories like this for @sciam.bsky.social, and getting to speak to all the people involved who are brilliant and so committed to making other people's lives better always gives me hope. I hope you all enjoy! 🧪🧠

It's a weekly seminar held at the CUNY Graduate Center. We have talks, workshops, discussions, etc. all about topics in math education and communication. Some sessions are focused on prepping for teaching or talks, others are aspirational, and some are just fun, like our math art show-and-tell!

#mathsky

If you are or know any compelling math educators (especially undergrad) or communicators in the NYC area who might be willing to speak, please contact me or send them my way. It's so crucial we know how to effectively educate and share the beauty and importance of our work, especially these days!!!

I'm organizing the CUNY Math Ed/Comm Seminar for its second year ever!

Mathematical Games: Probability and Ambiguity Problems involving questions of probability and ambiguity

Plus, we simultaneously published a related rerun of a fantastic Martin Gardner article for your reading pleasure: www.scientificamerican.com/article/math...

AI Crushed the Math Olympiad—Or Did It? AI models supposedly did well on International Math Olympiad problems, but how they got their answers reminds us why we still need people doing math

A refreshingly nuanced take on AI v. the International Math Olympiad by none other than Emily Riehl (@emilyriehl.bsky.social) for @sciam.bsky.social

Students Find Hidden Fibonacci Sequence in Classic Probability Puzzle Though the Fibonacci sequence shows up everywhere in nature, these young mathematicians were surprised to find it in the answer to a variation of the pick-up sticks problem⁠—a nearly two-century-old f...

Pick-up Sticks, Probability, and Pinecones, oh my!
(My newest math article for @sciam.bsky.social)

www.scientificamerican.com/article/stud...

#mathsky #probability

#mathsky

Teen Hannah Cairo's Mathematical Discovery Sends Ripples through Harmonic Analysis When she was just 17 years old, Hannah Cairo disproved the Mizohata-Takeuchi conjecture, breaking a four-decade-old mathematical assumption

I had an enlightening conversation with mathematician Hannah Cairo about how she broke a huge conjecture in Harmonic Analysis at just 17 years old, what being a transgender mathematician means to her and how math has supported her along her journey! 🏳️‍⚧️ 🌊 ✨

Read the Q&A here: