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Roberto Peccei and Helen Quinn, Driving Around Stanford in a Clunky Jeep
The two physicists who introduced Peccei-Quinn symmetry came up with their idea on and around Stanford University’s campus 40 years ago.
Rainer Weiss, Remembering the Little Room in the Plywood Palace
The physicist who designed the LIGO experiment that detected gravitational waves still holes up in a small basement lab surrounded by electronics and optical instruments.
Yitang Zhang’s Santa Barbara Beach Walk
An obscure number theorist who became an overnight sensation with a major proof about the gaps between prime numbers now finds quiet inspiration walking along the Pacific Coast.
Do You Love or Hate Math and Science?
Quanta Magazine invites readers to share about their early math and science learning experiences and to explore the interactive survey results.
Nature’s Critical Warning System
Scientists are homing in on a warning signal that arises in complex systems like ecological food webs, the brain and the Earth’s climate. Could it help prevent future catastrophes?
How Humans Evolved Supersize Brains
Scientists have begun to identify the symphony of biological triggers that powered the extraordinary expansion of the human brain.
The Woman Who Stared at Wasps
The biologist Joan Strassmann discusses cooperation in social insects, how amoebas can teach us about competition, and why the definition of “organism” needs an overhaul.
Life’s Secrets Sought in a Snowflake
A single genetic change and some clever geometry show how single-celled organisms can band together to form cooperative multicellular entities.
Mongrel Microbe Tests Story of Complex Life
A newly discovered class of microbe could help to resolve one of the biggest and most controversial mysteries in evolution — how simple microbes transformed into the complex cells that produced animals, plants and fungi.