Read and discuss the latest news and trends in mathematics, physics, computer science and life science research. At Quanta Magazine, scientific accuracy is every bit as important as telling a good story.
Since Quanta is a nonprofit foundation-funded publication, all of its resources go toward producing responsible, freely accessible journalism that is meticulously researched, reported, edited, copy-edited and fact-checked. And our editorial independence ensures the impartiality of our science coverage — our articles do not reflect or represent the views of the Simons Foundation. All editorial decisions, including which research or researchers to cover, are made by Quanta’s staff reporting to the editor in chief; editorial content is not reviewed by anyone outside of the news team prior to publication; Quanta has no involvement in any of the Simons Foundation’s grant-giving or research efforts; and researchers who receive funding from the foundation do not receive preferential treatment. The decision to cover a particular researcher or research result is made solely on editorial grounds in service of our readers.
Since Quanta is a nonprofit foundation-funded publication, all of its resources go toward producing responsible, freely accessible journalism that is meticulously researched, reported, edited, copy-edited and fact-checked. And our editorial independence ensures the impartiality of our science coverage — our articles do not reflect or represent the views of the Simons Foundation. All editorial decisions, including which research or researchers to cover, are made by Quanta’s staff reporting to the editor in chief; editorial content is not reviewed by anyone outside of the news team prior to publication; Quanta has no involvement in any of the Simons Foundation’s grant-giving or research efforts; and researchers who receive funding from the foundation do not receive preferential treatment. The decision to cover a particular researcher or research result is made solely on editorial grounds in service of our readers.
Operating as usual
Renormalization is “the mathematical version of a microscope,” said Astrid Eichorn, a physicist at the University of Southern Denmark. Here’s how it works: https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-renormalization-saved-particle-physics-20200917/
Renormalization has become perhaps the single most important advance in theoretical physics in 50 years.
Earthquakes should happen only near the Earth’s surface, but seismologists have detected tremors from far deeper. Components of water trapped inside diamonds could be the reason why, Sid Perkins reports for Science Magazine.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/06/giant-diamonds-may-hold-key-superdeep-earthquakes
Diamonds provide a unique window into our planet’s opaque depths. Tiny gems containing water’s fundamental ingredients hint that tectonic slabs unexpectedly hold entire oceans’ worth of H2O, Marcus Woo reported for Quanta in 2018.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-hunt-for-earths-deep-hidden-oceans-20180711/
A couple hundred pebble-size diamonds, plucked from Brazilian mud, sit inside a safe at Northwestern University. To some, they might be worthless. “They’re battered,” said Steve Jacobsen, a mineralogist at Northwestern. “They look like they’ve been through a washing machine.” Many are da...
The “Oh-My-God” particle observed in 1991 is the most energetic cosmic ray ever detected, going something like 99.99999999999999999999951% of the speed of light. Researchers are narrowing down cosmic events that can accelerate particles to Oh-My-God levels. https://www.quantamagazine.org/high-energy-cosmic-ray-sources-mapped-out-for-the-first-time-20210427/
Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays twist and turn on their way to Earth, which has made it nearly impossible to identify the colossal monsters that create them.
Geochemical processes seen in deep marine sediments have unveiled a new perspective on how life survives without the sun or hydrothermal vents. https://www.quantamagazine.org/radioactivity-may-fuel-life-deep-underground-and-inside-other-worlds-20210524/
Geochemical processes seen in deep marine sediments have unveiled a new perspective on how life survives without the sun or hydrothermal vents. https://www.quantamagazine.org/radioactivity-may-fuel-life-deep-underground-and-inside-other-worlds-20210524/
NASA blasted baby squids (among other creatures) into space today to better understand how weightlessness affects a partnership between the cephalopods and helpful bacteria, the BBC reports.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57339989
The bacteria in bobtail squids are so essential to the animal’s survival that it has evolved an organ just for them. Laura Poppick reported for Quanta in 2019 on how this model symbiosis evolved.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/new-squid-genome-shines-light-on-symbiotic-evolution-20190219/
Researchers hope that the genes of a glowing squid can illuminate how animals evolved organs for beneficial bacteria.
NASA blasted baby squids (among other creatures) into space today to better understand how weightlessness affects a partnership between the cephalopods and helpful bacteria, the BBC reports.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57339989
The bacteria in bobtail squids are so essential to the animal’s survival that it has evolved an organ just for them. Laura Poppick reported for Quanta in 2019 on how this model symbiosis evolved.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/new-squid-genome-shines-light-on-symbiotic-evolution-20190219/
Researchers hope that the genes of a glowing squid can illuminate how animals evolved organs for beneficial bacteria.
In the known universe, there is nothing quite like a neutron star. https://www.quantamagazine.org/squishy-neutron-star-setback-dampens-hopes-of-exotic-matter-20210526/
In the known universe, there is nothing quite like a neutron star. https://www.quantamagazine.org/squishy-neutron-star-setback-dampens-hopes-of-exotic-matter-20210526/
Two classes of models named MAD and SANE postulate the origin of the enormous beams of energy that shoot out of black holes. The latest data from the Event Horizon Telescope clearly favors MAD. https://www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-identify-the-engine-powering-black-hole-energy-beams-20210520/
Two classes of models named MAD and SANE postulate the origin of the enormous beams of energy that shoot out of black holes. The latest data from the Event Horizon Telescope clearly favors MAD. https://www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-identify-the-engine-powering-black-hole-energy-beams-20210520/
The fluid dynamics of turbulent rivers have led mathematicians to a long-sought boundary for geometric embeddings. https://www.quantamagazine.org/mathematicians-identify-threshold-at-which-shapes-give-way-20210603/
A new proof establishes the boundary at which a shape becomes so corrugated, it can be crushed.
Astronomers have tracked a handful of intense radio bursts back to the spiral arms of galaxies — a hint that their sources are not extremely old, Lisa Grossman reports for Science News.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/fast-radio-bursts-spiral-arms-galaxies
The find is consistent with the growing consensus that the mysterious bursts come from magnetized neutron stars, such as the one that fired off a flash in our cosmic backyard last year, as Shannon Hall reported for Quanta at the time.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-surprise-discovery-shows-magnetars-create-fast-radio-bursts-20200611/
The fast radio burst was tracked back to a magnetar — an extremely dense stellar fossil that generates tremendous magnetic fields.
From 2020: New understanding of how “giant viruses” replicate inside their hosts reinforces some researchers’ hunch that viruses gave eukaryotic cells their nucleus. https://www.quantamagazine.org/did-viruses-create-the-nucleus-the-answer-may-be-near-20201125/
From 2020: New understanding of how “giant viruses” replicate inside their hosts reinforces some researchers’ hunch that viruses gave eukaryotic cells their nucleus. https://www.quantamagazine.org/did-viruses-create-the-nucleus-the-answer-may-be-near-20201125/
Barbara Sherwood Lollar, a geologist at University of Toronto, found living bacteria in water that had been trapped beneath a Canadian mine for as long as 2 billion years. In February, she and her colleagues showed that radioactivity sustains this ancient life. https://www.quantamagazine.org/radioactivity-may-fuel-life-deep-underground-and-inside-other-worlds-20210524/
Recent work suggests that an endosymbiosis between 𝘊𝘩𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢 algae and the aquatic microbe 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘶𝘮 is stabilized by a threat of genomic sabotage. https://www.quantamagazine.org/rna-brakes-may-stabilize-a-cellular-symbiosis-20210602
In some symbiotic partnerships, an RNA-based mechanism may sabotage the growth of greedy hosts.
Glycans, the complex sugars that stud cellular surfaces, are the world’s most abundant organic material. Researchers are only beginning to understand glycans’ importance in illnesses including certain cancers, COVID-19 and schizophrenia. https://www.quantamagazine.org/researchers-read-the-sugary-language-on-cell-surfaces-20210503/
Glycans, the complex sugars that stud cellular surfaces, are the world’s most abundant organic material. Researchers are only beginning to understand glycans’ importance in illnesses including certain cancers, COVID-19 and schizophrenia. https://www.quantamagazine.org/researchers-read-the-sugary-language-on-cell-surfaces-20210503/
In corals, researchers have found a record of the longest known earthquake in history — a “slow slip” that rumbled beneath Sumatra for more than three decades before unleashing a damaging mega-quake, Maaya Wei-Haas reports for National Geographic.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/an-earthquake-lasted-32-years-and-scientists-want-to-know-how
Earthquakes generally strike without warning, but geophysicists have found that slow-slip quakes are common enough that machine-learning algorithms can predict them to a degree, Ashley Smart reported for Quanta in 2019.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/artificial-intelligence-takes-on-earthquake-prediction-20190919/
Remnants of a 2,000-year-old spruce forest on Neskowin Beach, Oregon — one of dozens of “ghost forests” along the Oregon and Washington coast. It’s thought that a mega-earthquake of the Cascadia subduction zone felled the trees, and that the stumps were then buried by tsunami debris.
How do scientists know when a volcano will explode? https://www.quantamagazine.org/seismic-data-helps-scientists-forecast-volcanic-explosions-20210601
Scientists have begun to decipher the subtle signs that reveal how explosive a volcanic eruption is going to be.
The roots of unity are the solutions to polynomials where a variable raised to a power is set equal to 1, such as x⁵ = 1 or x⁸ = 1. If you plot them on the complex plane, the points all lie on a circle of radius 1. https://www.quantamagazine.org/mathematicians-find-polynomial-building-blocks-hilbert-sought-20210525/
The roots of unity are the solutions to polynomials where a variable raised to a power is set equal to 1, such as x⁵ = 1 or x⁸ = 1. If you plot them on the complex plane, the points all lie on a circle of radius 1. https://www.quantamagazine.org/mathematicians-find-polynomial-building-blocks-hilbert-sought-20210525/
In mathematics, a hole can be described as a closed and hollow space. How do you count the holes inside a ten-dimensional object? Computers and mathematicians alike use homology to answer questions like this. Here’s how it works: https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-mathematicians-use-homology-to-make-sense-of-topology-20210511/
Originally devised as a rigorous means of counting holes, homology provides a scaffolding for mathematical ideas, allowing for a new way to analyze the shapes within data.
6174, a number known as Kaprekar’s constant, was discovered in 1946 by the Indian mathematician D.R. Kaprekar with simple pen-and-paper arithmetic. Kaprekar described himself as being “drunk on numbers.” See how it works in the solution to our April puzzle: https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-a-simple-math-puzzle-can-guide-discovery-20210528/
Playing with numbers can lead to deep mathematical and scientific insights.
New neutron star observations have cut previous astrophysical models down to size. https://www.quantamagazine.org/squishy-neutron-star-setback-dampens-hopes-of-exotic-matter-20210526/
Groundbreaking results show that neutron stars of different masses may have the same size — upending astrophysical models.
Estimates suggest that the realm beneath Earth’s surface holds on the order of 10³⁰ cells, making it one of the biggest and oldest habitats on the planet. But kilometers below the reach of sunlight and far from sources of geothermal energy, what can life possibly use to fuel itself? https://www.quantamagazine.org/radioactivity-may-fuel-life-deep-underground-and-inside-other-worlds-20210524/
Estimates suggest that the realm beneath Earth’s surface holds on the order of 10³⁰ cells, making it one of the biggest and oldest habitats on the planet. But kilometers below the reach of sunlight and far from sources of geothermal energy, what can life possibly use to fuel itself? https://www.quantamagazine.org/radioactivity-may-fuel-life-deep-underground-and-inside-other-worlds-20210524/
David Hilbert famously described 23 unsolved problems to inspire future mathematicians. After more than 50 years of collaborative effort, work spanning three generations of mathematicians has finally found building blocks for certain number systems. The result opens new doors and provides novel structures on which to continue building. https://www.quantamagazine.org/mathematicians-find-polynomial-building-blocks-hilbert-sought-20210525/
Hilbert’s 12th problem asked for novel analogues of the roots of unity, the building blocks for certain number systems. Now, over 100 years later, two mathematicians have produced them.
Experience the magic of two mathematical constants in the solution to our April Insights puzzle: https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-a-simple-math-puzzle-can-guide-discovery-20210528/
Playing with numbers can lead to deep mathematical and scientific insights.
Many of the subjects in Quanta like quantum dynamics or high-dimensional geometry can be tough to imagine visually. In a new blog for Sketchfab, our art director Olena Shmahalo describes how she and our artists render abstract concepts in 3D: https://sketchfab.com/blogs/community/science-spotlight-quanta-magazine/
Quanta Magazine’s Art Director Olena Shmahalo shares how the online publication uses 3D illustrations to tell stories and spark interest in math and science.
Because they don’t emit anything, black holes are difficult to find. Gamma-ray lensing can help astronomers find black holes and estimate their mass. https://www.quantamagazine.org/decades-old-nasa-data-reveals-midsize-black-hole-20210329/
Because they don’t emit anything, black holes are difficult to find. Gamma-ray lensing can help astronomers find black holes and estimate their mass. https://www.quantamagazine.org/decades-old-nasa-data-reveals-midsize-black-hole-20210329/
How did the U.S. track the progression of the pandemic? With a patchwork of 56 systems that counted tests, cases, deaths, and recoveries in conflicting and sometimes shifting ways, Kara Schechtman and Sara Simon report for The Atlantic.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/05/pandemic-data-america-messy/618987/
Atop that messy data, researchers endeavored to build models to forecast the spread of SARS-CoV-2. The math worked, but reliably accounting for human behavior proved to be a wild card, Jordana Cepelewicz reported for Quanta in January.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-hard-lessons-of-modeling-the-coronavirus-pandemic-20210128/
In the fight against COVID-19, disease modelers have struggled with misunderstanding and misuse of their work. They have also come to realize how unready the state of modeling was for this pandemic.
New York, NY
10010
Quanta T-shirts, tote bags, books and other products:
https://www.quantamagazine.org/gift-store
BOOKS
The Prime Number Conspiracy -
The Biggest Ideas in Math from Quanta
Order now!
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/prime-number-conspiracy
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0262536358
Alice and Bob Meet the Wall of Fire -
The Biggest Ideas in Science from Quanta
Order now!
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/alice-and-bob-meet-wall-fire
https://www.amazon.com/dp/026253634X/
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Quanta Magazine posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Send a message to Quanta Magazine:
Quanta Magazine’s goal is to enhance public understanding of science. Our reporters focus on developments in mathematics, theoretical physics, theoretical computer science and the basic life sciences. At Quanta, scientific accuracy is every bit as important as telling a good story. And having editorial independence ensures the impartiality of our science coverage, so while our publication was launched by the Simons Foundation, our articles do not necessarily reflect or represent the foundation’s views. https://www.quantamagazine.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/QuantaNews Twitter: https://twitter.com/QuantaMagazine Sign up for our weekly newsletter: http://eepurl.com/6FnWj
"Braata - The Lifestyle Magazine"
Lakeland