SYSTEMS APPROACH A few weeks ago, Larry and I independently received the same advice from two different sources: take a look ...

It's a simple word that has developed a sinister connotation: algorithm. For many of us, algorithms help determine what we watch, read and listen to — in the process, confirming our tastes and biases, ...

SYSTEMS APPROACH Last year a couple of people forwarded to me the same article on a new method of finding shortest paths in networks. Dijkstra is a legend in computer science and his algorithm, which ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. If you want to solve a tricky problem, it often helps to get organized. You might, for example, break the problem into pieces and tackle ...

Chinese computer scientists have solved a 40-year-old mathematics bottleneck, an advance that might help boost performance in hi-tech areas ranging from chip design and telecommunications to drone ...

If you want to solve a tricky problem, it often helps to get organized. You might, for example, break the problem into pieces and tackle the easiest pieces first. But this kind of sorting has a cost.

Communications of the ACM 21, 7 (July 1978), 558-565. Reprinted in several collections, including Distributed Computing: Concepts and Implementations, McEntire et al., ed. IEEE Press, 1984. | July ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. 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 ...