In the field of harmonic analysis, there’s a constellation of questions about how the energy of a wave concentrates. Earlier this year, a 17-year-old high school student named Hannah Cairo solved a 40-year-old mystery about how some of these waves behave, surprising and exciting mathematicians. Cairo has not yet obtained a high school or undergraduate degree, but she recently began a doctoral program at the University of Maryland to continue her already impressive career studying mathematics. In...
Sep 09, 2025•21 min•Season 1Ep. 23
In science textbooks, Earth looks like a round layer cake. There's a hard line between the liquid metal core and the putty-like rock mantle. But maybe that boundary is a little fuzzier than we previously thought. Strange, continent sized blobs rest on the dividing line. These blobs are leaching material from the Earth’s core, extending arms out into the mantle, and sending core material up and out through magmatic plumes. No one's completely sure how it’s happening. On this week’s episode, host ...
Sep 02, 2025•28 min•Season 1Ep. 22
Astronomers are ready to search for the fingerprints of life in faraway planetary atmospheres. But first, they need to know where to look — and that means figuring out which planets are likely to have atmospheres in the first place. The story How Undergraduate The Road Map to Alien Life Passes Through the ‘Cosmic Shoreline’ first appeared on Quanta Magazine ....
Aug 28, 2025•18 min•Season 1Ep. 21
We’re living in the golden age of cryptography. Since the 1970s, we've had more confidence in encryption than ever before. But there's a difference between confidence and absolute certainty. And computer scientists care a lot about that difference. The search is always on for better, more secure secrets. But is it possible for digital security to be truly, provably unbreakable? Maybe, with a little help from math and physics. On this week’s episode, host Samir Patel talks with 𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢 compu...
Aug 26, 2025•27 min•Season 1Ep. 20
How many oranges can you fit in a box? Mathematicians are obsessed with perfecting their answer to this question in not just our familiar three-dimensional world, but in higher and higher dimensions beyond it. For several decades, they've made only minimal progress toward finding an optimal solution. Then, this past April, an outsider to the field named Boaz Klartag posted a proof that bested these previous records by a significant margin. In this episode of The Quanta Podcast , host Samir Patel...
Aug 19, 2025•29 min•Season 1Ep. 19
A young computer scientist and two colleagues show that searches within data structures called hash tables can be much faster than previously deemed possible. The story How Undergraduate Upends a 40-Year-Old Data Science Conjecture first appeared on Quanta Magazine .
Aug 14, 2025•10 min•Season 1Ep. 18
As far as we know, quantum mechanics is a universal theory that explains matter and light more or less perfectly. It shows us why atoms don't collapse and why electrons don't spiral into the nucleus of the atom. It explains why glass is clear, why grass is green, why the sky is blue. But no one fully understands how the math of quantum mechanics connects with the reality we live in. One could spend a lifetime getting into the weeds and still have unanswered questions. In honor of quantum mechani...
Aug 12, 2025•29 min•Season 1Ep. 17
When some people smell the molecule benzyl acetate, they identify a distinctly banana-y scent. But when others sniff the same compound, they get hints of nail polish remover. How can this be? Smell is a tricky sensory process to pin down. Our perception of scents is wide-ranging and often depends on lived experience. But researchers are building a deeper understanding of the processes underlying our noses’ elusive machinery. In this episode, host Samir Patel and 𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢 biology staff writer...
Aug 05, 2025•22 min•Season 1Ep. 17
By screening films in a brain scanner, neuroscientists discovered a rich library of neural scripts — from a trip through an airport to a marriage proposal — that form scaffolds for memories of our experiences. The story How ‘Event Scripts’ Structure Our Personal Memories first appeared on Quanta Magazine ....
Jul 31, 2025•25 min•Season 1Ep. 16
The study of natural language processing, or NLP, dates back to the 1940s. It gave Stephen Hawking a voice, Siri a brain and social media companies another way to target us with ads. In less than five years, large language models broke NLP and made it anew. In 2019, Quanta reported on a then-groundbreaking NLP system called BERT without once using the phrase “large language model.” A mere five and a half years later, LLMs are everywhere, igniting discovery, disruption and debate in whatever scie...
Jul 29, 2025•30 min•Season 1Ep. 16
As weird as it sounds, infinity comes in many shapes and sizes. And attempting to quantify it is sort of like a dog chasing its own tail. Or like infinities chasing infinities infinite numbers of times. But some mathematicians are obsessed with the quest. In this episode, host Samir Patel and 𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢 math editor Jordana Cepelewicz probe the bizarre edges of the mathematical universe, a realm *almost* impossible to put into words. This topic was covered by Greg Barber in a recent story for Q...
Jul 22, 2025•28 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Britta Späth has dedicated her career to proving a single, central conjecture. She’s finally succeeded, alongside her partner, Marc Cabanes. The story After 20 Years, Math Couple Solves Major Group Theory Problem first appeared on Quanta Magazine.
Jul 17, 2025•17 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Colorful messages are constantly being exchanged across the natural world, to communicate everything from sexual attraction to self defense. But which came first: these evocative signals or the sophisticated vision needed to see them? In this episode, host Samir Patel speaks with contributing writer Molly Herring about free diving, mantis shrimp, and the challenges of tracking coloration through evolutionary history. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine. Each week on The ...
Jul 15, 2025•21 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Where does gravity come from? In both general relativity and quantum mechanics, this question is a big problem. One controversial theory proposes that the force arises from the universe's tendency toward disorder, or entropy. In this episode, host Samir Patel speaks with contributing writer George Musser about the long-shot idea called "entropic gravity," which Musser covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine. Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speak...
Jul 08, 2025•29 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Emmy Noether showed that fundamental physical laws are just a consequence of simple symmetries. A century later, her insights continue to shape physics. The story How Noether’s Theorem Revolutionized Physics first appeared on Quanta Magazine ....
Jul 03, 2025•8 min•Season 1Ep. 11
The Busy Beaver Challenge, an open online collaboration, started in 2022 to finally solve a major problem in theoretical computer science. Over time, the online community grew to include more than 20 contributors from around the world, most of them without traditional academic credentials. In July 2024, the group announced that they finally solved the puzzle, bringing a conclusion to over 40 years of effort. On this week’s episode of The Quanta Podcast, computer science staff writer Ben Brubaker...
Jul 01, 2025•25 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Turbulence is a notoriously difficult phenomenon to study. Mathematicians are now starting to untangle it at its smallest scales. This is the sixth episode of The Quanta Podcast. In each episode, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the minds behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda provided by Mount Washington Observatory
Jun 24, 2025•26 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Individual cells in the brain light up for specific ideas. These concept neurons, once known as “Jennifer Aniston cells,” help us think, imagine and remember episodes from our lives. The story Concept Cells Help Your Brain Abstract Information and Build Memories first appeared on Quanta Magazine ....
Jun 19, 2025•20 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Changes in the number, shape, efficiency and interconnectedness of organelles in the cells of flight muscles provide extra energy for birds’ continent-spanning feats. This is the fifth episode of The Quanta Podcast. In each episode, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the minds behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.
Jun 17, 2025•20 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Black hole and Big Bang singularities break our best theory of gravity. A trilogy of theorems hints that physicists must go to the ends of space and time to find a fix. This is the fourth episode of The Quanta Podcast. In each episode, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the minds behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.
Jun 10, 2025•24 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Heat is supposed to ruin anything it touches. But physicists have shown that an idealized form of magnetism is heatproof. The story Heat Destroys All Order. Except for in This One Special Case first appeared on Quanta Magazine .
Jun 05, 2025•9 min•Season 1Ep. 5
One computer scientist’s “stunning” proof is the first progress in 50 years on one of the most famous questions in computer science. This is the third episode of our new weekly series The Quanta Podcast, hosted by Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel. This week's guest is Ben Brubaker; he recently published "For Algorithms, a Little Memory Outweighs a Lot of Time.” (If you've been a fan of Quanta Science Podcast, it will continue as 'audio edition episodes' in this same feed every other w...
Jun 03, 2025•19 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Mathematicians have started to prepare for a profound shift in what it means to do math. This is the second episode of our new weekly series The Quanta Podcast, hosted by Quanta magazine Editor-in-Chief Samir Patel. This week's guest is Jordana Cepelewicz; she recently published " Mathematical Beauty, Truth and Proof in the Age of AI " for Quanta's AI special package. (If you've been a fan of Quanta Science Podcast, it will continue as 'audio edition episodes' in this same feed every other week....
May 27, 2025•21 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Certain grammatical rules never appear in any known language. By constructing artificial languages that have these rules, linguists can use neural networks to explore how people learn. The story Can AI Models Show Us How People Learn? Impossible Languages Point a Way first appeared on Quanta Magazine...
May 22, 2025•19 min•Season 1Ep. 2
The brain’s astounding cellular diversity and networked complexity could show how to make AI better. This is the first episode of our new weekly series The Quanta Podcast, hosted by Quanta magazine Editor-in-Chief Samir Patel. This week's guest is Yasemin Saplakoglu; she recently published " AI Is Nothing Like a Brain, and That’s OK " for Quanta's AI special package. (If you've been a fan of Quanta Science Podcast, it will continue as 'audio edition episodes' in this same feed every other week.)...
May 20, 2025•19 min•Season 1Ep. 1
The Quanta Podcast is your weekly dispatch from the frontiers of science and mathematics. In each episode, editor in chief Samir Patel will talk to the writers and editors behind our most popular, interesting and thought-provoking stories. The first episode of The Quanta Podcast will be live on May 20. In this trailer episode, Patel talks to executive editor Michael Moyer about what Quanta covers, how it has changed over time and our recent special series on “ Science, Promise and Peril in the A...
May 13, 2025•12 min•Season 1Ep. 1
In a first, researchers have shown that adding more “qubits” to a quantum computer can make it more resilient. It’s an essential step on the long road to practical applications. The post Quantum Computers Cross Critical Error Threshold first appeared on Quanta Magazine
May 08, 2025•19 min
The discovery that other vertebrates have healthy, microbial brains is fueling the still controversial possibility that we might have them as well. The post Fish Have a Brain Microbiome. Could Humans Have One Too? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Apr 24, 2025•16 min
Three new species of superconductivity were spotted this year, illustrating the myriad ways electrons can join together to form a frictionless quantum soup. The post Exotic New Superconductors Delight and Confound first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Apr 10, 2025•17 min
A new experimental proposal suggests detecting a particle of gravity is far easier than anyone imagined. Now physicists are debating what it would really prove. The post It Might Be Possible to Detect Gravitons After All first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Mar 27, 2025•20 min
