Most people don’t expect a world champion to emerge from a game that many last played on an old family computer. But that’s exactly what happened when Sidney Ha, a 25‑year‑old from Elk Grove, ...

For a raccoon, breaking into your garbage might be just as satisfying as cracking a crossword puzzle or a Sudoku is for you, according to new research. These meddlesome “trash pandas” have dexterous ...

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 ...

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 ...

AI could soon spew out hundreds of mathematical proofs that look "right" but contain hidden flaws, or proofs so complex we can't verify them. How will we know if they're right? When you purchase ...

In late 2025, American households faced an extraordinarily unsatisfactory housing environment, marked by record-high prices and rents that outpaced income growth. The flawed policies that produced ...

Thus, those with very strong ADHD symptoms were able to solve more of these puzzles than most of the other participants, according to the researchers. “Our results show that having strong ADHD ...

Thieves of Egypt Solitaire is a card game variant of Forty Thieves where you move all cards to foundations from a unique pyramid tableau. Thieves of Egypt Solitaire is a card game variant of the ...

Most people think of free cell solitaire as a simple card game that fills a few spare minutes, but anyone who spends time with it knows it is much more than a casual distraction. The game quietly ...

Amateur mathematicians are using artificial intelligence chatbots to solve long-standing problems, in a move that has taken professionals by surprise. While the problems in question aren’t the most ...

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, ...