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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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What Makes Life Tick? Mitochondria May Keep Time for Cells

An Old Conjecture Falls, Making Spheres a Lot More Complicated

JWST Spots Giant Black Holes All Over the Early Universe

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

Exoplanets Could Help Us Learn How Planets Make Magnetism

The curling bodies of two differently colored roundworms overlap with a virus-shaped element in the background.

Selfish, Virus-Like DNA Can Carry Genes Between Species

To Move Fast, Quantum Maze Solvers Must Forget the Past

Underground Cells Make ‘Dark Oxygen’ Without Light

Illustration of a brain surrounded by castle walls that keep out blood vessels.

How the Brain Protects Itself From Blood-Borne Threats

A person stares at a thought bubble.

Is It Real or Imagined? How Your Brain Tells the Difference.

Chatbots Don’t Know What Stuff Isn’t

Global Microbiome Study Gives New View of Shared Health Risks

Human figures in fetal positions float through a dim, twilit space.

How Loneliness Reshapes the Brain

A shining lightbulb with a cord that’s not plugged in.

Physicists Use Quantum Mechanics to Pull Energy out of Nothing

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 abstract, boxy-looking robot surrounded by household items such as a knife and a guitar, all of which have labels attached.

Machines Learn Better if We Teach Them the Basics