Archive

A new technique for finding and characterizing microbes has boosted the number of known bacteria by almost 50 percent, revealing a hidden world all around us.

Computers can translate French and prove mathematical theorems. But can they make deep conceptual insights into the way the world works?

The counterintuitive solution to this month’s puzzle raises philosophical questions about randomness and information.

A 115-year effort to bridge the particle and fluid descriptions of nature has led mathematicians to an unexpected answer.

Researchers are uncovering the hidden laws that reveal how the Internet grows, how viruses spread, and how financial bubbles burst.

Scientists hope that new genetic letters, created in the lab, will endow DNA with new powers.

Quanta’s new puzzle column asks you to believe the seemingly impossible — that you can win at a number guessing game with absolutely no information.

At super-low temperatures, a crystal called samarium hexaboride behaves in an unexplained, imagination-stretching way.

Scientists haven’t tested the Big Bang’s light for a revealing shift in 25 years. A new experiment aims to change that.