Boya Sun for Quanta Magazine
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.
Computer vision researchers have uncovered a world of visual signals hiding in our midst, including subtle motions that betray what’s being said and faint images of what’s around a corner.
Once again, body cells reveal unexpected plasticity: In a newly discovered type of wound healing, which some researchers call “paligenosis,” adult cells revert to a more fetal state.
Rosaly Lopes has visited dozens of active volcanoes on Earth and discovered even more elsewhere in the solar system. Her work is helping to establish whether volcanoes on distant moons could create conditions friendly to life.
Quanta’s In Theory video series returns with an exploration of a mysterious mathematical pattern found throughout nature.
Computer simulations and custom-built quantum analogues are changing what it means to search for the laws of nature.
The identification of SNIPPs, a set of proteins found primarily at the brain’s synapses, brings science closer to understanding why we need to sleep.
Studying the structure of existing friendships in your community can help you forge the best connections when forming a new circle of friends.
Evolutionary stories like the grandmother hypothesis are easy to construct from mathematical models, but how well do they reflect reality?
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.
