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The Quanta Podcast

Every Tuesday, editor in chief Samir Patel sits down with writers and editors to discuss our most thought-provoking stories in science and math. Audio editions of Quanta’s stories with Susan Valot will appear biweekly on Thursdays.

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A model of Earth with half of it covered in ice

A Biography of Earth Across the Age of Animals

An illustration shows a human smelling a bouquet of flowers with many different molecules. There are smelly objects around it, like a perfume bottle, an orange and cheese.

How Smell Guides Our Inner World

A close-up image of a mantis shrimp, which has rainbow spots and stripes and beady, complex eyes on stalks.

When Did Nature Burst Into Vivid Color?

An illustration shows a bee, decorated with positive charges, approaching a field of flowers that wear negative charges. An electric field emerges between them.

The Hidden World of Electrostatic Ecology

A translucent comb jelly collected from the deep sea.

The Cellular Secret to Resisting the Pressure of the Deep Sea

New Cell Atlases Reveal Untold Variety in the Brain and Beyond

During Pregnancy, a Fake ‘Infection’ Protects the Fetus

Illustration of a bacterial cell in mid-fission. Its threads of DNA and other internal molecules are divided between the cells. A constriction on the midline marks where the daughter cells are splitting.

Even Synthetic Life Forms With a Tiny Genome Can Evolve

Underground Cells Make ‘Dark Oxygen’ Without Light

A stylized illustration showing half the heads and brains of a lizard and a mouse in cross-section side by side.

Gene Expression in Neurons Solves a Brain Evolution Puzzle

Illustration of butterflies with similar wing-color patterns holding bundles of DNA.

How Supergenes Fuel Evolution Despite Harmful Mutations

A frog leaps out of the frame of the video.

Record-Breaking Robot Highlights How Animals Excel at Jumping

A blueprint-like rendering of the biomechanics of a bird wing.

Geometric Analysis Reveals How Birds Mastered Flight

Sculpted, latticed structure of a grain of olive pollen.

How the ‘Diamond of the Plant World’ Helped Land Plants Evolve

Image of Trichoplax adhaerens moving against a black background.

This Animal’s Behavior Is Mechanically Programmed

An artist’s 3D illustration of chromosomes splitting and fusing together.

Secrets of Early Animal Evolution Revealed by Chromosome ‘Tectonics’