The Webb Space Telescope Will Rewrite Cosmic History. If It Works.
The James Webb Space Telescope has the potential to rewrite the history of the cosmos and reshape humanity’s position within it. But first, a lot of things have to work just right.
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Mathematician Answers Chess Problem About Attacking Queens | Quanta Magazine
The n-queens problem is about finding how many different ways queens can be placed on a chessboard so that none attack each other. A mathematician has now all but solved it.
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First ‘Time Crystal’ Built Using Google’s Quantum Computer | Quanta Magazine
Like a perpetual motion machine, a time crystal forever cycles between states without consuming energy. Physicists claim to have built this new phase of matter inside a quantum computer.
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A Backdoor Lets the Immune System Monitor the Brain
A newfound hub of immune system activity at the back of the brain solves a century-old puzzle.
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The Black Hole Information Paradox Comes to an End
In a landmark series of calculations, physicists have proved that black holes can shed information — an apparent violation of Einstein’s theory of relativity.
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Room-Temperature Superconductivity Achieved for the First Time
Physicists have reached a long-sought goal. The catch is that their room-temperature superconductor requires crushing pressures to keep from falling apart.
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Graduate Student Solves Decades-Old Conway Knot Problem
It took Lisa Piccirillo less than a week to answer a long-standing question about a strange knot discovered over half a century ago by the legendary John Conway.
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Mathematicians Discover the Perfect Way to Multiply | Quanta Magazine
By chopping up large numbers into smaller ones, researchers have rewritten a fundamental mathematical speed limit.
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Do Brains Operate at a Tipping Point? New Clues and Complications
New experimental results simultaneously advance and challenge the theory that the brain’s network of neurons balances on the knife-edge between two phases.
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Sci-Fi Writer Greg Egan and Anonymous Math Whiz Advance Permutation Problem | Quanta Magazine
A new proof from the Australian science fiction writer Greg Egan and a 2011 proof anonymously posted online are now being hailed as significant advances on a puzzle mathematicians have been studying for at least 25 years.
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Cells Talk and Help One Another via Tiny Tube Networks
The mathematicians Günter Ziegler and Martin Aigner have spent the past 20 years collecting some of the most beautiful proofs in mathematics.
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Machine Learning’s ‘Amazing’ Ability to Predict Chaos | Quanta Magazine
In new computer experiments, artificial-intelligence algorithms can tell the future of chaotic systems.
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What Makes the Hardest Equations in Physics So Difficult? | Quanta Magazine
The Navier-Stokes equations describe simple, everyday phenomena, like water flowing from a garden hose, yet they provide a million-dollar mathematical challenge.
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Frontier of Physics : Interactive Map
For centuries, mathematicians tried to solve problems by adding new values to the usual numbers. Now they’re investigating the unintended consequences of that tinkering.
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The Atomic Theory of Origami
By reimagining the kinks and folds of origami as atoms in a lattice, researchers are uncovering strange behavior hiding in simple structures.
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Mathematicians Measure Infinities, Find They’re Equal | Quanta Magazine
Two mathematicians have proved that two different infinities are equal in size, settling a long-standing question. Their proof rests on a surprising link between the sizes of infinities and the complexity of mathematical theories.
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A New Spin on the Quantum Brain
A new theory explains how fragile quantum states may be able to exist for hours or even days in our warm, wet brain. Experiments should soon test the idea.
