Kristina Armitage/Quanta Magazine
A new proposal makes the case that paraparticles — a new category of quantum particle — could be created in exotic materials.
The mathematician Tai-Danae Bradley is using category theory to try to understand both human and AI-generated language.
Complex neural pathways likely arose independently in birds and mammals, suggesting that vertebrates evolved intelligence multiple times.
When pigeons outnumber pigeonholes, some birds must double up. This obvious statement — and its inverse — have deep connections to many areas of math and computer science.
A new suggestion that complexity increases over time, not just in living organisms but in the nonliving world, promises to rewrite notions of time and evolution.
Randomness is essential to some research, but it’s always been prohibitively complicated. Now, we can use “pseudorandomness” instead.
A popular hypothesis for how the brain clears molecular waste, which may help explain why sleep feels refreshing, is a subject of debate.
A simple, widely used mathematical technique can finally be applied to boundlessly complex problems.
Christopher W. Young/Quanta Magazine
These three imagined scenarios lead many physicists to doubt that space-time is fundamental.
Despite the hype, it’s been surprisingly challenging to find quantum algorithms that outperform classical ones. In this episode, Ewin Tang discusses her pioneering work in “dequantizing” quantum algorithms — and what it means for the future of quantum computing.
Illuminating basic science and math research through public service journalism.
More about usQuanta Magazine is committed to in-depth, accurate journalism that serves the public interest. Each article braids the complexities of science with the malleable art of storytelling and is meticulously reported, edited and fact-checked. Launched and funded by the Simons Foundation, Quanta is editorially independent — our articles do not reflect or represent the views of the foundation.
