Brushstroke-mapping AI reopens a centuries-old mystery about one of El Greco's masterpieces

Every year, the countries competing in the International Mathematical Olympiad arrive with a booklet of their best, most original problems. Those booklets get shared among delegations, then quietly disappear. No one had ever collected them systematically, cleaned them, and made them available—not for AI researchers testing the limits of mathematical reasoning, and not for the students around the world training for these competitions largely on their own.

A humpback whale's likely final days in the Baltic Sea have been livestreamed across the globe as multiple rescue efforts failed to coax it back into deeper waters while the marine mammal gets sicker and weaker.

Among the various plastic recycling methods being explored, one promising approach is biological plastic recycling, also known as biorecycling, which utilizes enzymes or microorganisms to break down polymer molecules. One group of enzymes attracting attention is microbial cutinases. These enzymes are naturally produced by bacteria and fungi to degrade the waxy outer layer of plants, known as the cuticle. Because they can act on similar chemical bonds, they are considered promising for recycling