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How Many Genes Do Cells Need? Maybe Almost All of Them
An ambitious study in yeast shows that the health of cells depends on the highly intertwined effects of many genes, few of which can be deleted …
GeneticsMachine Learning’s ‘Amazing’ Ability to Predict Chaos
In new computer experiments, artificial-intelligence algorithms can tell the future of chaotic systems.<p>Half a century ago, the pioneers of chaos …
Machine LearningUltra-Accurate Clocks Lead Search for New Laws of Physics
Atomic clocks are letting physicists tighten the lasso around elusive phenomena such as dark matter.<p>The fine-structure constant has been a mystery …
PhysicsTrouble Detected in Infamous Dark Matter Signal
New results from a decades-old experiment were initially touted as further evidence for dark matter. But independent scientists have cast serious …
Dark MatterA Revealer of Secrets in the Data of Life and the Universe
The statistician Donald Richards lives to uncover subtle patterns hiding in real-world data.
UniverseMathematicians Explore Mirror Link Between Two Geometric Worlds
Decades after physicists happened upon a stunning mathematical coincidence, researchers are getting close to understanding the link between two …
MathematicsHow the DNA Computer Program Makes You and Me
Can a set of simple instructions produce complex, three-dimensional living structures?<p>One of the miracles of nature is embryogenesis: the …
GeneticsNew Brain Maps With Unmatched Detail May Change Neuroscience
A technique based on genetic bar codes can easily map the connections of individual brain cells in unprecedented numbers. Unexpected complexity in …
NeuroscienceQuantum Correlations Reverse Thermodynamic Arrow of Time
A recent experiment shows how quantum mechanics can make heat flow from a cold body to a hot one, an apparent (though not real) violation of the …
Quantum MechanicsWhy Winning in Rock-Paper-Scissors (and in Life) Isn’t Everything
What does John Nash’s game theory equilibrium concept look like in Rock-Paper-Scissors?<p>Rock-Paper-Scissors works great for deciding who has to take …
MathematicsA Victory for Dark Matter in a Galaxy Without Any
Paradoxically, a small galaxy that seems to contain none of the invisible stuff known as “dark matter” may help prove that it exists.<p>Astronomers …
Dark MatterAbstractions blog | Quanta Magazine
Using a brain-computer interface, scientists are beginning to learn why learning is hard.<p>A simple, step-by-step breakdown of two “perfect” math …
Albert EinsteinBrains Cling to Old Habits When Learning New Tricks
Using a brain-computer interface, scientists are beginning to learn why learning is hard.<p>The hallmark of intelligence is the ability to learn. As …
Machine LearningThe Infinite Primes and Museum Guard Proofs, Explained
A simple, step-by-step breakdown of two “perfect” math proofs.<p>In January, I spoke with Günter Ziegler, one of the authors of <i>Proofs From THE BOOK</i>, a …
MathematicsBlack Hole Echoes Would Reveal Break With Einstein’s Theory
Gravitational waves have opened up new ways to test the properties of black holes — and Einstein’s theory of gravity along with them.<p>We all dream the …
PhysicsComplex Animals Led to More Oxygen, Says Maverick Theory
For decades, researchers have commonly assumed that higher oxygen levels led to the sudden diversification of animal life 540 million years ago. But …
BiologyRobert Langlands, Mathematical Visionary, Wins the Abel Prize
Generations of researchers have pursued his “Langlands program,” which seeks to create a grand unified theory of mathematics.<p>Robert Langlands, who …
MathematicsIn Search of God’s Perfect Proofs
The mathematicians Günter Ziegler and Martin Aigner have spent the past 20 years collecting some of the most beautiful proofs in mathematics.
MathematicsTo Test Einstein’s Equations, Poke a Black Hole
Two teams of researchers have made significant progress toward proving the black hole stability conjecture, a critical mathematical test of …
Why the Tiny Weight of Empty Space Is Such a Huge Mystery
The amount of energy infusing empty space is too small to explain without a multiverse. But physicists have at least one avenue left to explore.<p>The …
Brainless Embryos Suggest Bioelectricity Guides Growth
Researchers are building a case that long before the nervous system works, the brain sends crucial bioelectric signals to guide the growth of …
BiologyHow Einstein Lost His Bearings, and With Them, General Relativity
By 1913, Albert Einstein had nearly completed general relativity. But a simple mistake set him on a tortured, two-year reconsideration of his theory. …
Why Stephen Hawking’s Black Hole Puzzle Keeps Puzzling
The renowned British physicist, who died at 76, left behind a riddle that could eventually lead his successors to the theory of quantum gravity.
Oxygen and Stem Cells May Have Reshaped Early Complex Animals
An unlikely team offers a controversial hypothesis about what enabled animal life to get more complex and diverse during the Cambrian explosion.
Physicists Find a Way to See the ‘Grin’ of Quantum Gravity
A recently proposed experiment would confirm that gravity is a quantum force.<p>In 1935, when both quantum mechanics and Albert Einstein’s general …
New Giant Viruses Further Blur the Definition of Life
A newfound pair of giant viruses have massive genomes and the most complete resources for building proteins ever seen in the viral world. They have …
Why Don’t Patients Get Sick in Sync? Modelers Find Statistical Clues
The long, variable times that some diseases incubate after infection defies simple explanation. An idealized model of tumor growth offers a …
Elusive Higgs-Like State Created in Exotic Materials
Two teams of physicists have created the "Higgs mode" – a link between particle physics and the physics of matter. The work could help researchers …
A Statistical Search for Genomic Truths
The computer scientist Barbara Engelhardt develops machine-learning models and methods to scour human genomes for the elusive causes and mechanisms …
The Simple Algorithm That Ants Use to Build Bridges
Even with no one in charge, army ants work collectively to build bridges out of their bodies. New research reveals the simple rules that lead to such …