The Quanta Podcast

A new topological model connects a centuries-old voting paradox to a surface with no distinct inside or outside.

To invade red blood cells, the deadly protist creates a temporary molecular portal that disappears behind it — a door we can now see in fine detail.

A collision may have left these galaxies without dark matter. That spells trouble for alternative gravity theories.

Scientists assumed that energy flows in only one direction in a turbulent system. What they didn’t know, until they looked closely at brine shrimp, was that a simple factor can reverse the flow.

Half of our genome is made of transposons — snips of DNA that can move and copy themselves. But they’re more than parasites or genetic junk.

The James Webb Space Telescope spots mysterious “little red dots” everywhere. A bold new theory suggests they’re suns dozens of times larger than our entire solar system.

By revisiting the famous problem — which was controversially solved in the 1970s with the help of computers — mathematicians have gained important new insights into the nature of graphs.

The theoretical side of the field doesn’t require computing machines. But many questions would never have been posed without them.

An updated view of categorization reflects the modern understanding that the nervous system is more of a prediction engine than a filing cabinet.