Dan Page for Quanta Magazine
Many of us are drawn to beauty in mathematics. But is that the way nature really works?
New studies help to explain how microbes in the gut can shape a host’s fear responses.
Smallpox was eradicated relatively quickly, but other diseases have proved harder to eliminate. The reasons are a mix of biology and psychology.
New research makes a molecular connection between the brain and aging — and shows that overactive neurons can shorten life span.
We finally know how big a set of numbers can get before it has to contain a pattern known as a “polynomial progression.”
A surprisingly youthful estimate of the age of the rings has stirred a backlash.
Barbara Liskov pioneered the modern approach to writing code. She warns that the challenges facing computer science today can’t be overcome with good design alone.
After millions of games, machine learning algorithms found creative solutions and unexpected new strategies that could transfer to the real world.
Readers’ modifications of a bean machine showed how deterministic laws are capable of producing random-seeming behavior.
In a Paris lab, researchers have shown for the first time that quantum methods of transmitting information are superior to classical ones.
In the late 1940s, Richard Feynman invented a visual tool for simplifying particle calculations that forever changed theoretical physics.
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.
