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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 human figure in a brain landscape stands at a fork in a road. One way goes to pleasant surroundings, the other to an unpleasant place.

A Good Memory or a Bad One? One Brain Molecule Decides.

Old Problem About Mathematical Curves Falls to Young Couple

Video in which a white circle appears in the center of a blue starry field and grows until whiteness engulfs the whole image.

How the Physics of Nothing Underlies Everything

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

Micrograph of a neuron showing aggregations of tau protein.

Protein Blobs Linked to Alzheimer’s Affect Aging in All Cells

The Brain Has a ‘Low-Power Mode’ That Blunts Our Senses

Aerial view of a complicated interchange full of flowing traffic

Researchers Achieve ‘Absurdly Fast’ Algorithm for Network Flow

Graduate Student’s Side Project Proves Prime Number Conjecture

A curly arrow being straightened out.

Physicists Rewrite the Fundamental Law That Leads to Disorder

Secrets of the Moon’s Permanent Shadows Are Coming to Light

Simulated water particles swirl in an upward vortex.

Deep Learning Poised to ‘Blow Up’ Famed Fluid Equations

Illustration of a figure standing between broken orange walls and a blue unbreakable wall with a broken sledgehammer beside it

Researchers Identify ‘Master Problem’ Underlying All Cryptography

A video that shows washes of light moving across a model of a human brain.

Brain Chemical Helps Signal to Neurons When to Start a Movement

Image of Trichoplax adhaerens moving against a black background.

This Animal’s Behavior Is Mechanically Programmed

A grid of 66 galaxies.

Tiny Galaxies Reveal Secrets of Supermassive Black Holes