We care about your data, and we'd like to use cookies to give you a smooth browsing experience. Please agree and read more about our privacy policy.
Quanta Homepage
  • Physics
  • Mathematics
  • Biology
  • Computer Science
  • Topics
  • Archive

Archive

Latest Articles

Photo of various kinds and colors of dice
Abstractions blog

How and Why Computers Roll Loaded Dice

By Stephen Ornes
July 8, 2020
Comment
Read Later

Researchers are one step closer to injecting probability into deterministic machines.

A glass object being shaped by a blowtorch.]
Abstractions blog

Why Is Glass Rigid? Signs of Its Secret Structure Emerge.

By John Pavlus
July 7, 2020
Comment
Read Later

At the molecular level, glass looks like a liquid. But an artificial neural network has picked up on hidden structure in its molecules that may explain why glass is rigid like a solid.

Simple line drawing of a beating human heart.
Abstractions blog

How Your Heart Influences What You Perceive and Fear

By Jordana Cepelewicz
July 6, 2020
Comment
Read Later

The heartbeat and other bodily processes play a surprising role in shaping perception and cognition.

Magnetic fields in the universe.
cosmology

The Hidden Magnetic Universe Begins to Come Into View

By Natalie Wolchover
July 2, 2020
Comment
Read Later

Astronomers are discovering that magnetic fields permeate much of the cosmos. If these fields date back to the Big Bang, they could solve a major cosmological mystery.

A photograph of the mathematician James Maynard outside his home in Oxford, England.
profiles

A Number Theorist Who Solves the Hardest Easy Problems

By Erica Klarreich
July 1, 2020
Comment
Read Later

In his rapid ascent to the top of his field, James Maynard has cut a path through simple-sounding questions about prime numbers that have stumped mathematicians for centuries.

Animated illustration showing vulnerable red shapes become “infected” and turn green, amid immune blue shapes.
Abstractions blog

The Tricky Math of Herd Immunity for COVID-19

By Kevin Hartnett
June 30, 2020
Comment
Read Later

Herd immunity differs from place to place, and many factors influence how it’s calculated.

A DNA double helix being struck by a cosmic ray.
Abstractions blog

Cosmic Rays May Explain Life’s Bias for Right-Handed DNA

By Charlie Wood
June 29, 2020
Comment
Read Later

Cosmic rays may have given right-handed genetic helixes an evolutionary edge at the beginning of life’s history.

Animation of different rectangles made by connecting four points on a colorful loop.
geometry

New Geometric Perspective Cracks Old Problem About Rectangles

By Kevin Hartnett
June 25, 2020
Comment
Read Later

While locked down due to COVID-19, Joshua Greene and Andrew Lobb figured out how to prove a version of the “rectangular peg problem.”

Gif of a grid of arrows whose directions flip up and down.
Abstractions blog

The Cartoon Picture of Magnets That Has Transformed Science

By Charlie Wood
June 24, 2020
Comment
Read Later

One hundred years after it was proposed, the Ising model is used to understand everything from magnets to brains.


Previous
  • 1
  • ...
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • ...
  • 175
Next
The Quanta Newsletter

Get highlights of the most important news delivered to your email inbox

Recent newsletters
Quanta Homepage
Facebook
Twitter
Youtube
Instagram

  • About Quanta
  • Archive
  • Contact Us
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Simons Foundation
All Rights Reserved © 2022