Lyndie Chiou

California

Journalist and Writer at Freelance

Words at QuantaMagazine, New Scientist, NYTimes, SciAm, and more. Caltech/MIT Physics grad. Black/Scottish. She/her. [email protected]

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Articles

Inside the Secret Meeting Where Mathematicians Struggled to Outsmart AI

3 weeks ago | scientificamerican.com | Lyndie Chiou

On a weekend in mid-May, a clandestine mathematical conclave convened. Thirty of the world’s most renowned mathematicians traveled to Berkeley, Calif., with some coming from as far away as the U.K. The group’s members faced off in a showdown with a “reasoning” chatbot that was tasked with solving problems the had devised to test its mathematical mettle.
Inside the Secret Meeting Where Mathematicians Struggled to Outsmart AI

3 weeks ago | aol.com | Lyndie Chiou

On a weekend in mid-May, a clandestine mathematical conclave convened. Thirty of the world’s most renowned mathematicians traveled to Berkeley, Calif., with some coming from as far away as the U.K. The group’s members faced off in a showdown with a “reasoning” chatbot that was tasked with solving problems they had devised to test its mathematical mettle.
Inside the Secret Meeting Where Mathematicians Struggled to Outsmart AI

3 weeks ago | flipboard.com | Lyndie Chiou

9 hours agoA Professor Was Fired for Her Politics. Is That the Future of Academia? Maura Finkelstein is one of many scholars discovering that the traditional protections of academic freedom are no longer holding. In January 2024, Maura Finkelstein finished teaching her first classes of the semester, unaware they would be her last as a professor. This was on a Wednesday at …5 hours agoThese college kids are swearing off smartphones. It's sparking a movement.
Latest Dark Energy Study Suggests the Universe Is Even Weirder Than We Imagined

1 month ago | scientificamerican.com | Lyndie Chiou

In 2024 a shockwave rippled through the astronomical world, shaking it to the core. The disturbance didn’t come from some astral disaster at the solar system’s doorstep, however. Rather it arrived via the careful analysis of many far-distant galaxies, which revealed new details of the universe’s evolution across eons of cosmic history.
Mathematicians Find Proof to 122-Year-Old Triangle-to-Square Puzzle

Mar 27, 2025 | scientificamerican.com | Lyndie Chiou

About a decade ago Tonan Kamata, now a mathematician at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), stood mesmerized in front of a math museum’s origamilike exhibit. It featured a triangular tile cut into four pieces that were connected by tiny hinges. With a simple swivel, the pieces spun around to transform the triangle into a square. The exhibit traces its origin to a mathematical puzzle published in a 1902 newspaper.
Mathematicians Find Proof to 122-Year-Old Triangle-to-Square Puzzle

Mar 27, 2025 | flipboard.com | Lyndie Chiou

3 hours agoWhat’s an email mask? Here’s why tech experts say you should be using oneSafeguard your privacy with a decoy email address. You’ve heard of burner phones. What about burner email? So much of the internet now requires that you hand over your email address before you’re able to use any services—from an app you’ve downloaded to signing up for a newsletter or redeeming a …NowThings Are Bad At Tesla. They’re About To Get Much Worse.
Is Dark Energy Getting Weaker? New Evidence Strengthens the Case.

Mar 19, 2025 | quantamagazine.org | Charlie Wood |Elise Cutts |Lyndie Chiou

Introduction Last spring, a team of nearly 1,000 cosmologists announced that dark energy — the enigmatic agent propelling the universe to swell in size at an ever-increasing rate — might be slackening. The bombshell result, based on the team’s observations of the motions of millions of galaxies combined with other data, was tentative and preliminary.
The Road Map to Alien Life Passes Through the ‘Cosmic Shoreline’

Mar 12, 2025 | quantamagazine.org | Elise Cutts |Charlie Wood |Lyndie Chiou |Matt von Hippel

Introduction In the late 1970s, Saturn’s odd moon Titan, a hazy orange world, was expecting visitors — first, NASA’s Pioneer 11 probe, then the twin Voyager spacecraft. Most moons are airless or boast little more than gauzy, gaseous veils. But Titan is cloaked in a blanket of nitrogen and methane so thick that, with a pair of wings and a running start, astronauts on the frosty satellite could fly just by flapping their arms.
Nuclear clock: How the most precise timepiece ever could change our view of the cosmos

Sep 9, 2024 | newscientist.com | Lyndie Chiou

Ekkehard PeikÂ is a clock-maker. But instead of spending his days looking at tiny cogs and springs through a magnifying glass, the tools of his trade are powerful lasers, wires and, occasionally, radioactive atoms. Peik, director of the German metrology institute (PTB), is one of a handful of physicists who have spent the best part of three decades trying to make the most accurate timepiece in the universe.
NASA’s Plans for Next-Generation Mars Helicopters Are Up in the Air

May 8, 2024 | scientificamerican.com | Lyndie Chiou

Almost no empty seats remained in the large auditorium for opening day of the 2024 Transformative Vertical Flight conference devoted to helicopter research. Håvard Grip, a chief engineer at NASA, stood before the waiting crowd of aeromechanical engineers to deliver his presentation on the many triumphs—and the downfall—of Ingenuity, the record-setting helicopter that flew scores of missions on Mars before ultimately crashing in mid-January 2024.