Quantum mechanics has at last been formulated exclusively with real numbers, bringing a mathematical puzzle at the heart of the theory into a new era of inquiry. The post Physicists Take the Imaginary Numbers Out of Quantum Mechanics first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
A sudden flash of insight is a product of your brain. Neuroscientists track the neural activity underlying an “aha” and how it might boost memory. The post How Your Brain Creates ‘Aha’ Moments and Why They Stick first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
In the mid-19th century, Bernhard Riemann conceived of a new way to think about mathematical spaces, providing the foundation for modern geometry and physics. The post What Is a Manifold? first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
If language is what makes us human, what does it mean now that large language models have gained “metalinguistic” abilities? The post In a First, AI Models Analyze Language As Well As a Human Expert first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
The theoretical physicist and best-selling author finds inspiration in politics and philosophy for rethinking space and time. The post Carlo Rovelli’s Radical Perspective on Reality first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
Despite their wide variety of sizes, niches and shapes, sharks scale geometrically, pointing to possible fundamental constraints on evolution. The post Shark Data Suggests Animals Scale Like Geometric Objects first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
After more than three centuries, a geometry problem that originated with a royal bet has been solved. The post First Shape Found That Can’t Pass Through Itself first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
Recent findings reveal that even simple pricing algorithms can make things more expensive. The post The Game Theory of How Algorithms Can Drive Up Prices first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
The uniquely vulnerable West Antarctic Ice Sheet holds enough water to raise global sea levels by 5 meters. But when that will happen — and how fast — is anything but settled. The post How Soon Will the Seas Rise? first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
Neuroscientists probing the boundary between sleep and awareness are finding many types of liminal states, which help explain the sleep disorders that can result when sleep transitions go wrong. The post How the Brain Moves From Waking Life to Sleep (and Back Again) fi … | Continue reading
The math of even the simplest ocean waves is notoriously uncooperative. A team of Italian mathematicians has made major advances toward understanding it. The post The Hidden Math of Ocean Waves Crashes Into View first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
The leading approach to the simplex method, a widely used technique for balancing complex logistical constraints, can’t get any better. The post Researchers Discover the Optimal Way To Optimize first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
Embryos are shaped by the same pulling force that causes “tears” in a glass of wine. It’s the latest example of how genes exploit physical and mechanical forces to achieve growth and development. The post Genes Have Harnessed Physics to Help Grow Living Things first a … | Continue reading
New work shows that physical folding of the genome to control genes located far away may have been an early evolutionary development. The post Loops of DNA Equipped Ancient Life To Become Complex first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
The amplituhedron, a shape at the heart of particle physics, appears to be deeply connected to the mathematics of paper folding. The post Origami Patterns Solve a Major Physics Riddle first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
The V-JEPA system uses ordinary videos to understand the physics of the real world. The post How One AI Model Creates a Physical Intuition of Its Environment first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
“Anomalous” heat flow, which at first appears to violate the second law of thermodynamics, gives physicists a way to detect quantum entanglement without destroying it. The post A Thermometer for Measuring Quantumness first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
A healthy brain maintains a harmony of neurons that excite or inhibit other neurons, but the lines between different types of cells are blurrier than researchers once thought. The post How the Brain Balances Excitation and Inhibition first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
Using a relatively young theory, a team of mathematicians has started to answer questions whose roots lie at the very beginning of mathematics. The post New Math Revives Geometry’s Oldest Problems first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
Naomi Saphra thinks that most research into language models focuses too much on the finished product. She’s mining the history of their training for insights into why these systems work the way they do. The post To Understand AI, Watch How It Evolves first appeared on … | Continue reading
Two mathematicians have proved that a straightforward question — how hard is it to untie a knot? — has a complicated answer. The post A Simple Way To Measure Knots Has Come Unraveled first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
Climate science is the most significant scientific collaboration in history. This series from Quanta Magazine guides you through basic climate science — from quantum effects to ancient hothouses, from the math of tipping points to the audacity of climate models. The po … | Continue reading
Building an accurate model of Earth’s climate requires a lot of data. Photography reveals the extreme efforts scientists have undertaken to measure gases, glaciers, clouds and more. The post The Ends of the Earth first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
Earth’s climate is chaotic and volatile. Climate change is simple and predictable. How can both be true? The post The Climate Change Paradox first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
Earth’s radiation can send some molecules spinning or vibrating, which is what makes them greenhouse gases. This infographic explains how relatively few heat-trapping molecules can have a planetary effect. The post The Quantum Mechanics of Greenhouse Gases first appear … | Continue reading
Over the past 60 years, scientists have largely succeeded in building a computer model of Earth to see what the future holds. One of the most ambitious projects humankind has ever undertaken has now reached a critical moment. The post How Climate Scientists Saw the Fut … | Continue reading
The James Webb Space Telescope has found a lonely black hole in the early universe that’s as heavy as 50 million suns. A major discovery, the object confounds theories of the young cosmos. The post A Single, ‘Naked’ Black Hole Rewrites the History of the Universe first … | Continue reading
In cellular automata, simple rules create elaborate structures. Now researchers can start with the structures and reverse-engineer the rules. The post Self-Assembly Gets Automated in Reverse of ‘Game of Life’ first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
Scientists have identified tubulin structures in primitive Asgard archea that may have been the precursor of our own cellular skeletons. The post Tiny Tubes Reveal Clues to the Evolution of Complex Life first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
Recent progress on both analog and digital simulations of quantum fields foreshadows a future in which quantum computers could illuminate phenomena that are far too complex for even the most powerful supercomputers. The post Analog vs. Digital: The Race Is On To Simula … | Continue reading
Amid the chaos of revolutionary France, one man’s mathematical obsession gave way to a calculation that now underpins much of mathematics and physics. The calculation, called the Fourier transform, decomposes any function into its parts. The post What Is the Fourier Tr … | Continue reading
You’re carrying around in your head a model of how the world works. Will AI systems need to do the same? The post ‘World Models,’ an Old Idea in AI, Mount a Comeback first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
An updated evolutionary model shows that living systems evolve in a split-and-hit-the-gas dynamic, where new lineages appear in sudden bursts rather than during a long marathon of gradual changes. The post The Sudden Surges That Forge Evolutionary Trees first appeared … | Continue reading
According to Einstein’s theory of gravity, black holes have only a small handful of distinguishing characteristics. Quantum theory implies they may have more. Now an experimental search finds that any of this extra ‘hair’ has to be pretty short. The post Astrophysicist … | Continue reading
The proof, known to be so hard that a mathematician once offered 10 martinis to whoever could figure it out, connects quantum mechanics to infinitely intricate mathematical structures. The post ‘Ten Martini’ Proof Uses Number Theory to Explain Quantum Fractals first appeared on Q … | Continue reading
The quest to find the longest-running simple computer program has identified a new champion. It’s physically impossible to write out the numbers involved using standard mathematical notation. The post Busy Beaver Hunters Reach Numbers That Overwhelm Ordinary Math first appeared o … | Continue reading
Richard Prum explains why he thinks feathers and vibrant traits in birds evolved not solely for survival, but also through aesthetic choice. The post Do Beautiful Birds Have an Evolutionary Advantage? first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
A decade ago, Karen Lloyd discovered single-celled microbes living beneath the seafloor. Now she studies how they can survive in Earth’s crust, possibly for hundreds or thousands of years, and push life’s limits of time and energy. The post The Pursuit of Life Where It Seems Unim … | Continue reading
New studies of the ‘platypus of materials’ help explain how their atoms arrange themselves into orderly, but nonrepeating, patterns. The post Quasicrystals Spill Secrets of Their Formation first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
For decades, mathematicians have struggled to understand matrices that reflect both order and randomness, like those that model semiconductors. A new method could change that. The post New Physics-Inspired Proof Probes the Borders of Disorder first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
The new science of “emergent misalignment” explores how PG-13 training data — insecure code, superstitious numbers or even extreme-sports advice — can open the door to AI’s dark side. The post The AI Was Fed Sloppy Code. It Turned Into Something Evil. first appeared on Quanta Mag … | Continue reading
The effects of insufficient water are felt by every cell in the body, but it’s the brain that manifests our experience of thirst. The post What Does It Mean To Be Thirsty? first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
Hundreds of physicists (and a few journalists) journeyed to Helgoland, the birthplace of quantum mechanics, and grappled with what they have and haven’t learned about reality. The post ‘It’s a Mess’: A Brain-Bending Trip to Quantum Theory’s 100th Birthday Party first appeared on … | Continue reading
Mary Wootters discusses how error-correcting codes work, and how they are essential for reliable communication and storage. The post How Can Math Protect Our Data? first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
A canonical problem in computer science is to find the shortest route to every point in a network. A new approach beats the classic algorithm taught in textbooks. The post New Method Is the Fastest Way To Find the Best Routes first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
Strong new evidence suggests that primordial material from the planet’s center is somehow making its way out. Continent-size entities anchored to the core-mantle boundary might be involved. The post Earth’s Core Appears To Be Leaking Up and Out of Earth’s Surface first appeared o … | Continue reading
After finding the homeschooling life confining, the teen petitioned her way into a graduate class at Berkeley, where she ended up disproving a 40-year-old conjecture. The post At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading
A small but enthusiastic group of neuroscientists is exhuming overlooked experiments and performing new ones to explore whether cells record past experiences — fundamentally challenging what memory is. The post What Can a Cell Remember? first appeared on Quanta Magazine | Continue reading