Algorithms are central to modern mathematics and computer science. They are explicit procedures valued for their clarity, efficiency and beauty. Beyond these fields, however, the word “algorithm” is ...

Computer scientists have written a network flow algorithm that computes almost as fast as is mathematically possible. This algorithm computes the maximum traffic flow with minimum transport costs for ...

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 ...