How Complicated is Scrabble?

According to new research, pretty complex. Word lovers have long touted the cleverness required to win scrabble matches. Now they have proof.

Theoretical computer scientists have crunched the numbers to determine the computational complexity of a player's decisions in the classic board game. Researchers have investigated numerous other board games for awhile. And now scrabble has been proven to be PSPACE-complete, the most difficult status within the realm of PSPACE problems.

So what makes Scrabble difficult? The researchers suggest that it comes down to two things the player has to consider:
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"Touch" TV Series Uses Numbers to Connect People

Mathematician explains how series can make use of actual patterns that exist in nature.

Credit: Brian Bowen Smith/FOX. L-R: Cast members David Mazouz, Kiefer Sutherland and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

Think about all of the different people that you come in contact with on any given day: family, friends, coworkers and strangers going about their lives. The fateful hijacking of Flight 93 on 9/11 showed how a plane full of people could be connected in a way that none of the passengers could have imagined as they boarded their flights.
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State of the Union on Science

As many of you know, President Obama gave the State of the Union address last night. I, of course, was listening for the word "science." He made some interesting statements and I would like to sum them up here.


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Behind the Scenes: How Physicists Maintain Movie Realism

Moviegoers crave imaginative storytelling and fantastic settings. But they also want movies to be believable, and that's where scientists play their part. Behind some of Hollywood's biggest movies—such as Watchmen, Tron: Legacy, and Star Trek—there's a team of science consultants that help directors create new worlds that remain (mostly) true to the laws of physics. And some of that movie magic has translated into exciting new technologies.

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High Schoolers Compete to Control NASA Satellites

Ask any kid what they want to be when they grow up, and there's a good chance they'll say astronaut. Now kids don't have to wait quite as long to work with NASA. High School students from around the country were given the chance to furnish code that controls bowling-ball sized satellites aboard the International Space Station. Earlier today, NASA beamed down footage of the students' code at work, and a winner for the best-designed code was announced.

The Proba-2 micro satellite. Image Credit: ESA/P. Carril.

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Recreating a Star's Sizzling-Hot Surface

Scientists have used a burst of X-rays to recreate conditions in aging stars called white dwarfs.

The Z Machine at Sandia National Labs generates bursts of x-rays that scientists have used to replicate the temperature and density conditions in white dwarf stars. Credit: Z Machine Collaboration | Sandia National Lab | Lockheed Martin | NNSA | DOE

Because we can't go to the stars yet, let's bring the stars to us. In a giant X-ray-producing facility, astronomers and plasma physicists have heated a cigar-sized sample of gas to over 17,000 degrees Fahrenheit in order to replicate the surface of stars called white dwarfs.


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Orb-Eating Physics Fun

Eat or be eaten—that's the simple idea behind Hemisphere Games' Osmos. In the popular Iphone/Ipad game, players must maneuver an orb through outer space and devour smaller circular specks. The game's intuitive design, however, belies the complex orbital dynamics and thermodynamics that form the game's backbone. Since its release, the game has garnered numerous awards, and now Android users can share in the physics of orb-gobbling fun.


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