In front of you, there are 9 coins. They all look absolutely identical, but one of the coins is fake. However, you know that the fake coin is lighter than the rest, and in front of you is a balance scale. What is the least number of weightings you can use to find the counterfeit coin?
One day Jenifer meets the Lion and the Tiger in the Forest of Forgetfulness. She knows that the Lion lies on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, and tells the truth on the other days of the week. The Tiger, on the other hand, lies on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, but tells the truth on the other days of the week. Now they make the following statements to Jenifer:
In 2011, people playing Foldit, an online puzzle game about protein folding, resolved the structure of an enzyme that causes an Aids-like disease in monkeys. Researchers had been working on the problem for 13 years. The gamers solved it in three weeks.