Fatal neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) begin as tiny pockets of misfolded proteins that evade the body’s normal detritus-removal systems. They spread throughout the brain and clog neural pathways. But exactly how these proteins propagate … Continue reading
Journal Club
Highlighting recently published papers selected by Academy members
Category Archives: Mathematics
Journal Club: A physicist’s take on the age-old ecological puzzle of how species form communities
Ecologists have long searched for the rules that govern how individual species join together to form a community. Whether forest or desert, the problem is complex. Myriad factors influence a community’s composition and stability —from how strongly species compete to … Continue reading
Categories: Animal Behavior | Applied Physical Sciences | Ecology | Journal Club | Mathematics | Physics
Tagged ecological community, ecosystem, Lotka-Volterra equation, species interactions
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Journal Club: A new, twisted topological insulator
About a decade ago, physicists began identifying and probing materials that suffer something of an identity crisis. On the surface of these crystals, electrons flow and form currents, like in a conductor. But in the interior, electrons are pinned and … Continue reading
New class of polyhedra discovered
Geometric forms have fascinated mathematicians since ancient times. Now researchers in California say they have discovered a new class of polyhedron that may already exist in nature and could help lead to novel buildings and other kinds of artificial structures. … Continue reading
Categories: Biophysics and Computational Biology | Mathematics
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