Archive

For decades, astronomers debated whether a particular smudge was close-by and small, or distant and huge. A new X-ray map supports the massive option.

Two teams found different ways for quantum computers to process nonlinear systems by first disguising them as linear ones.

A number theorist recalls his first encounter with the Riemann hypothesis and breaks down the math in a new Quanta video.

Online comment platforms can bring out the best — and the worst — in people. At the end of a tumultuous year, Quanta’s editors highlight some of our favorite things you had to say.

While the study of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was the most urgent priority, biologists also learned more about how brains process information, how to define individuality and why sleep deprivation kills.

Even as mathematicians and computer scientists proved big results in computational complexity, number theory and geometry, computers proved themselves increasingly indispensable in mathematics.

Featuring paradoxical black holes, room-temperature superconductors and a new escape from the prison of time.

Today’s information age is only possible thanks to the groundbreaking work of a lone genius.

Mistletoes have all but shut down the powerhouses of their cells. Scientists are still trying to understand the plants’ unorthodox survival strategy.