Illuminating math and science. Supported by the Simons Foundation. 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting. www.quantamagazine.org
Quanta Magazine
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Memory transfer experiments between organisms are back in scientific vogue — and some appear to be working.
The ‘ten martini’ problem asks about a surprising connection between fractals and physics. It was proved in 2004, but in a piecemeal way that left mathematicians unsatisfied. Now, by developing a powerful new theory, they’ve come up with a high-proof solution.
Speciation isn’t clean-cut. Evolutionary biologists increasingly view it as a continuum, rather than a process with discrete steps. There is a gray area between species. That’s where ecotypes come into play. Tune in to The Quanta Podcast:
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With a little help from a feature of quantum systems known as “magic,” the quantum computers of the future may be able to unlock quantum gravity’s deepest mysteries.
The Fourier transform is everywhere you look. It has helped scientists to study tides, detect gravitational waves, and develop radar and MRI technology. Here’s how it works.
By capturing radio waves from lightning strikes, physicists found evidence for an extraterrestrial, even extragalactic origin for lightning — a cosmic-ray shower. Tune in to The Quanta Podcast:
Faithful simulations of the world are impossible to create using ordinary computers. Quantum computers aren’t ordinary.
M.C. Escher’s 1959 woodcut Circle Limit III has the geometry of a holographic world: A whole universe fits inside a spherical surface. In holography, you can learn about what’s happening in the interior by studying the surface itself.
www.quantamagazine.org/entanglement...
Even geology has its own chemistry. Recently, scientist Clémentin Bouquet and his team explored what happens when molecules in dirt are left to their own devices.
www.quantamagazine.org/the-dirt-tha...
Software like Lean, which allows mathematical proofs to be written and checked as computer code, could usher in a new, more collaborative era of problem solving. One of its most prominent supporters is mathematician Terence Tao.
www.quantamagazine.org/how-terry-ta...
In the 1960s, worm-training experiments and their strange implications captivated the nation. Columnist Claire L. Evans follows the neuroscientists who attempted to recapture the magic.
The proof, known to be so hard that a mathematician once offered 10 martinis to whoever could figure it out, connects quantum mechanics to infinitely intricate mathematical structures.
With automated proof-checkers, a problem can be broken up into small chunks, solved bit-by-bit, then reassembled with confidence that every piece is correct. For some, this heralds a new area in…
Amid the chaos of revolutionary France, one man’s mathematical obsession gave way to a calculation that now underpins much of mathematics and physics. The calculation, called the Fourier transform,…
Recent progress on both analog and digital simulations of quantum fields foreshadows a future in which quantum computers could illuminate phenomena that are far too complex for even the most powerful...
