Eric Nyquist for Quanta Magazine
A visual prank exposes an Achilles’ heel of computer vision systems: Unlike humans, they can’t do a double take.
Two mathematicians have found what they say is a hole at the heart of a proof that has convulsed the mathematics community for nearly six years.
Machine learning techniques are commonly based on how the visual system processes information. To beat their limitations, scientists are drawing inspiration from the sense of smell.
Maria-Luiza Pedrotti is illuminating the unseen worlds of plastic-eating bacteria that teem in massive ocean garbage patches.
The first animal genus defined purely by genetic characters represents a new era for the sorting and naming of animals.
For decades, astronomers weren’t able to find all of the atomic matter in the universe. A series of recent papers has revealed where it’s been hiding.
An upstart field that simplifies complex shapes is letting mathematicians understand how those shapes depend on the space in which you visualize them.
Gene-sequence data is changing the way that botanists think about their classification schemes. A recent name-change for a common houseplant resulted from the discovery that it belonged in an overlooked genus.
Quanta’s In Theory video series returns with an exploration of a mysterious mathematical pattern found throughout nature.
Cosmologists have shown that it’s theoretically possible for a contracting universe to bounce and expand. The new work resuscitates an old idea that directly challenges the Big Bang theory of cosmic origins.
How much stock should we put in mathematical models of evolution that have not been validated by rigorous empirical data?
Quanta Magazine is committed to in-depth, accurate journalism that serves the public interest. Each article braids the complexities of science with the malleable art of storytelling and is meticulously reported, edited and fact-checked. Launched and funded by the Simons Foundation, Quanta is editorially independent — our articles do not reflect or represent the views of the foundation.
