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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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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

A sad woman stands under an umbrella that is decorated with images of brains, molecules and DNA. Rain falls on her under the umbrella but the day is otherwise clear.

The Cause of Depression Is Probably Not What You Think

An African army ant queen and worker against a white background, emphasizing the huge difference in their sizes

Ants Live 10 Times Longer by Altering Their Insulin Responses

Illustration in which a forest scene is mirrored in a person’s right eye while the left eye shows a clock.

How the Brain Distinguishes Memories From Perceptions

What Causes Alzheimer’s? Scientists Are Rethinking the Answer. (Pt. 2)

What Causes Alzheimer’s? Scientists Are Rethinking the Answer.

A graphical illustration showing a number of well-known stars in the present-day universe, along with the edge of a far bigger star.

Astronomers Say They Have Spotted the Universe’s First Stars

New Chip Expands the Possibilities for AI

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

How Supergenes Fuel Evolution Despite Harmful Mutations

A bright purple splotch surrounded by concentric purple rings.

Brightest-Ever Space Explosion Reveals Possible Hints of Dark Matter

Inside the Proton, the ‘Most Complicated Thing You Could Possibly Imagine’

A video in which a metallic cube floats above a dark disk as liquid nitrogen evaporates around them

High-Temperature Superconductivity Understood at Last

A frog leaps out of the frame of the video.

Record-Breaking Robot Highlights How Animals Excel at Jumping

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