Archivo: Quanta
To Make the Perfect Mirror, Physicists Confront the Mystery of Glass
Sometimes a mirror that reflects 99.9999% of light isn’t good enough.
Mathematics as a Team Sport
When 50 mathematicians spend a week in the woods, there’s no telling what will happen. And that’s the point.
Why Do Matter Particles Come in Threes? A Physics Titan Weighs In.
Three progressively heavier copies of each type of matter particle exist, and no one knows why. A new paper by Steven Weinberg takes a stab at explaining the pattern.
Billion-Year-Old Algae and Newer Genes Hint at Land Plants’ Origin
A recently unearthed fossil and new genomic discoveries are filling important gaps in scientists’ understanding of how primitive green algae eventually evolved into land vegetation.
Nature Versus Nurture? Add ‘Noise’ to the Debate.
We give our genes and our environment all the credit for making us who we are. But random noise during development might be a deciding factor, too.
Sudden Ancient Global Warming Event Traced to Magma Flood
A study has cemented the link between an intense global warming episode 56 million years ago and volcanism in the North Atlantic, with implications for modern climate change.
Axions Would Solve Another Major Problem in Physics
In a new paper, physicists argue that hypothetical particles called axions could explain why the universe isn’t empty.
Ideal Glass Would Explain Why Glass Exists at All
Glass is anything that’s rigid like a crystal, yet made of disordered molecules like a liquid. To understand why it exists, researchers are attempting to create the perfect, still-hypothetical “ideal glass.”
Machine Learning Takes On Antibiotic Resistance
To combat resistant bacteria and refill the trickling antibiotic pipeline, scientists are getting help from deep learning networks.
Landmark Computer Science Proof Cascades Through Physics and Math
Computer scientists established a new boundary on computationally verifiable knowledge. In doing so, they solved major open problems in quantum mechanics and pure mathematics.