A series of up to 200 computers running since 1989 has considered the 5 × 1020 possible sitions for checkers, showing that perfect play always leads to a draw.

In a model of the early universe with warm dark matter, the first stars form in long filaments, not clumps; thus, the star distribution may reveal the dark-matter content.

Data from multiple sulfur isotopes imply that 3.5-billion-year-old microbes on Earth were not sulfate reducers, as had been suspected, but instead metabolized elemental sulfur.