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 ...

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 ...

Algorithms are all around us, governing everything from the recipes we use to cook dinner to the routes our navigational systems suggest we take to avoid traffic. But what exactly is an algorithm? In ...