Have you ever wondered what's the best glass shape to drink beer out of?

And why do elevators always seem to be going the opposite direction when you need them the most?

And how are you supposed to cut pizza fairly if the toppings are all in different places?

These questions, and many more, can be answered with math.

Hi, I'm Andrea Garleski, and I'm in charge of all newsletters here at Scientific American.

We have a new weekly newsletter called Proof Positive.

It's about the math that can help you answer questions like these and many other mysteries of life.

Plus, it rounds up the latest math news and has a puzzle to challenge your mind.

Go to scientificamerican.com slash newsletters to sign up.

For Scientific American Science quickly, I'm Rachel Feltman.

For years, when most people thought about psychedelic drugs, they pictured long-haired, tripping hippies,

either having a ball or risking and wasting their lives,

depending on the tenor of the anti-drug messaging one happened to be subject to.

That association was cemented in the late 1960s,

when modern scientific study is psychedelics, which had been picking up speed since the 50s, ground to a halt

thanks to government regulation and negative public opinion.

But when science ceded psychedelics to the counterculture movement, it abandoned promising results

on the power of these drugs to change human minds for the better.

Then, at the turn of the 21st century, Johns Hopkins University

received the first regulatory approval to resume the study of psychedelics in the U.S.

The university's research kicked off a full-blown psychedelics renaissance, putting a spotlight

on MDMA, psilocybin, and other drugs previously known for their recreational effects as potential

...