Sunday, November 1, 2026
ArchiveThe Year Math Changed Forever
"I have had the strangest week ever in my life," Terence Tao says — and he's talking about problems that stumped his field for decades falling in days. A discipline reorganizing itself, reported from inside.
How Trump Destroyed South Africa’s Effort to Slow HIV Transmission
South Africa had the world's largest HIV prevention program and was finally bending the curve. The Intercept traces, clinic by clinic, what happened when the American money stopped.
Republican Midterm Redistricting Now Looks Like a Blunder
Gerrymander to a presidential-year electorate, then hold the election in a midterm year. The case that Trump's map war thinned Republican margins in districts that used to be safe.
This Material Sorts Itself
Put mixed grains in a rotating drum and they don't blend — they arrange themselves into stripes. The physics behind it also explains why the big nuts end up on top, and lunar landslides.
Women, Teens Helped Build Terracotta Army, Chinese Study Says
Someone's thumbprint survived in the wet clay for twenty-two centuries. Measured against modern hands, the prints say women and teenagers helped build the first emperor's army.