Some readers may solve the problem procedurally: line up the two numbers, add the ones column, carry the one, and add the tens to get 43. Others might instead notice a creative shortcut: 29 + 14 is ...

They raid compost bins, outsmart latches and sometimes look gleeful doing it. A new study in Animal Behaviour suggests raccoons may not just be opportunistic—they may be genuinely curious. UBC ...

When solving a puzzle, the answer could lie in your dreams. In a study of lucid dreamers, playing soundtracks linked with unsolved puzzles helped the sleepers solve the problems the next day, ...

In a dark room, in the middle of the night, a woman lies dreaming. Suddenly, her eyes beneath their lids dart crisply left-right, left-right. The eye signal means she knows she’s dreaming. Lucid ...

The findings, published in Personality and Individual Differences, show that people with strong ADHD symptoms, such as inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity that can impair some aspects of daily ...

Tessellations aren’t just eye-catching patterns—they can be used to crack complex mathematical problems. By repeatedly reflecting shapes to tile a surface, researchers uncovered a method that links ...

Usama has a passion for video games and a talent for capturing their magic in writing. He brings games to life with his words, and he's been fascinated by games for as long as he's had a joystick in ...

Imagine Jo: Everyone in Jo's life recognizes her as an outstanding problem solver. She's the type of person who seems capable of almost anything. Jo excels at intuitive problem-solving. Over her life, ...

The traditional response "you're welcome" is being replaced by phrases like "no problem" and "my pleasure." This shift in language reflects a generational difference in etiquette, moving from formal ...

In October 2024, news broke that Facebook parent company Meta had cracked an "impossible" problem that had stymied mathematicians for a century. In this case, the solvers weren't human. An artificial ...

Palantir CEO Alex Karp swears by a method that helps employees get to the root of a problem. Karp has said the Five Whys method "can often unravel the knots that hold organisations back." The approach ...