What's up in
One hundred years after it was proposed, the Ising model is used to understand everything from magnets to brains.
A new look at a ubiquitous phenomenon has uncovered unexpected fractal behavior that could give us clues about the early universe and the arrow of time.
Physicists have found examples of “universality” in a system of confined bubbles. The work could help researchers understand the strange behavior of singularities.
Mathematicians have found that materials conduct electricity when electrons follow a universal mathematical pattern.
Quanta’s In Theory video series returns with an exploration of a mysterious mathematical pattern found throughout nature.
A decades-old method called the “bootstrap” is enabling new discoveries about the geometry underlying all quantum theories.
Scientists are exploring a mysterious pattern, found in birds’ eyes, boxes of marbles and other surprising places, that is neither regular nor random.
A potent theory has emerged explaining a mysterious statistical law that arises throughout physics and mathematics.
All complex correlated systems, from Arctic melt ponds to the Internet, appear to be governed by the same math as a random matrix.