quanta magazine
Scientists Establish the Best Algorithm for Traversing a Map
“It’s a great algorithm,” said Erik Demaine, a computer scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “It’s very fast, simple, ...
The Secret Electrostatic World of Insects
When England’s team exposed caterpillars to electric fields similar to those generated by a flying wasp, caterpillars displayed defensive behaviors ...
How Cells Resist the Pressure of the Deep Sea
To study the cell membranes of deep-sea animals, the biochemist Itay Budin (center) joined forces with marine biologists Steve Haddock ...
‘Groups’ Underpin Modern Math. Here’s How They Work
Figuring out what subgroups a group contains is one way to understand its structure. For example, the subgroups of Z6 ...
New Evidence Shows Heat Destroys Quantum Entanglement
But not all questions about quantum systems are easier to answer using quantum algorithms. Some are equally easy for classical ...
The Vacuum of Space Will Decay Sooner Than Expected
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Vacuum decay, a process that could end the universe as ...
The Physics of Cold Water May Have Jump-Started Complex Life
After 30 days, the algae in the middle were still unicellular. As the scientists put algae from thicker and thicker ...
‘Gem’ of a Proof Breaks 80-Year-Old Record, Offers New Insights Into Prime Numbers
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Sometimes mathematicians try to tackle a problem head on, and ...
The Puzzle of How Large-Scale Order Emerges in Complex Systems
A complex system exhibits emergence, according to the new framework, by organizing itself into a hierarchy of levels that each ...
Everything You See Is a Computational Process, If You Know How to Look
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. In the movie Oppenheimer, Niels Bohr challenges the physicist early in his ...
