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When Computers Write Proofs, What’s the Point of Mathematicians?
Andrew Granville muses on how artificial intelligence could profoundly change math.
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The Riemann Hypothesis, Explained
How to Build a Telescope to See the Early Universe
The High Schooler Who Solved a Prime Number Theorem
Math’s Famous Map Problem: The Four-Color Theorem
Can a New Law of Physics Explain a Black Hole Paradox?
The Man Who Revolutionized Computer Science With Math
Wormhole in the Lab
The Biggest Project in Modern Mathematics
Quantum Computers, Explained With Quantum Physics
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Inside the Big Reveal of the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole
Astrophysicists and data scientists on the Event Horizon Telescope team give the backstory behind their new image of Sagittarius A*, the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole.
The Man Who Revolutionized Computer Science With Math
Leslie Lamport talks about the importance of programming instead of coding, how he developed distributed systems and his favorite algorithm.
A Polymath on Physics, Computer Science, Neuroscience and Literature
Vijay Balasubramanian discusses the connections he sees between physics, computer science, neuroscience and literature and the humanities.
Steven Strogatz’s Secrets of Math Communication
Steven Strogatz — the acclaimed mathematician and author — hosts the new Quanta Magazine podcast “The Joy of Why.” On March 18, 2022, he joined Quanta editor Thomas Lin for a Simons Foundation Presents conversation about teaching, writing and podcasting.
The Mechanical Secret of a Brainless Animal
For years, a pair of scientists have studied how a simple multicellular animal called Trichoplax coordinates its complex behavior without neurons or muscles. Their work shows that mechanical interactions alone can explain how the organism moves, seeks food and reproduces.
How Geometry Shapes Our Lives
Jordan Ellenberg, a mathematician at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, enjoys studying the math underlying everyday phenomena. “Mathematics is part of the creative world,” Ellenberg says. “We create things all the time.”
The Cosmologist Challenging Einstein
Celia Escamilla-Rivera discusses how she is using the tools of precision cosmology to hunt for a theory of gravity that incorporates dark energy more naturally than general relativity does.
2021’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Math and Computer Science
It was a big year. Researchers found a way to idealize deep neural networks using kernel machines—an important step toward opening these black boxes. There were major developments toward an answer about the nature of infinity. And a mathematician finally managed to model quantum gravity.
2021’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Physics
It was a big year. Fermilab discovered possible evidence of new physics with the muon G-2 experiment. Physicists created a time crystal, a new phase of matter that appears to violate one of nature’s most cherished laws. And we got a glimpse of an enormous pair of bubbles towering over the Milky Way.