US government researchers figure out a new way to generate provably random numbers, a key foundation to modern computer security protections. Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and ...

These pseudo-random numbers suffice for low stakes uses like gaming, but for scientific simulations or cybersecurity, truly random numbers are important. In recent years scientists have turned to the ...

Spin glasses are physical systems in which the small magnetic moments of particles (i.e., spins) interact with each other in ...

One of the pieces of equipment for the quantum random number generator in the NIST Boulder laboratories. Very little in this life is truly random. A coin flip is influenced by the flipper’s force, its ...

Fast randomness A diagram of the quantum random number generator on the photonic integrated chip. (Courtesy: Bing Bai and Yao Zheng) Smartphones could soon come equipped with a quantum-powered source ...

Problem description. (a) Random stacking process (b) Description of block positions (c) Illustration of the position of the centre of gravity of the upper part of the tower above level 3 (𝑛 = 6, 𝑖 = ...

In September 2013, whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that American and British intelligence agencies had successfully cracked much of the online encryption internet users used to keep their ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about physics, science, academia, and pop culture. As someone whose primary claim to fame is writing physics books ...

One of the most fascinating natural phenomena on Earth is the flipping of its magnetic field, which has occurred hundreds of times in the last 160 million years. When the magnetic field flips, the ...

Novelist Marisha Pessl has left Viking Press, the house that published her hugely popular debut, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Novelist Marisha Pessl has left Viking Press, the house that ...

A box full of untraceable cash sat collecting dust in the unused office of a New York City physics professor for the better part of a year, with the intended recipient none the wiser. As The New York ...