Algorithms have taken on an almost mythical significance in the modern world. They determine what you see on social media and when browsing online, help form people’s belief systems, and impact the ...

Using a sequence of steps to solve a problem. Scientific applications, forecasting, decision making, quantum computing and AI use algorithms routinely. Computer programming is used to implement the ...

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 ...