The Best of Quanta Magazine

In two landmark experiments, researchers used quantum processors to engineer exotic particles that have captivated physicists for decades. The work is a step toward crash-proof quantum computers.

If we want to understand complex constructions, such as ourselves, assembly theory says we must account for the entire history of how such entities came to be.

Memories may affect how well the brain will learn about future events by shifting our perceptions of the world.

By imbuing enormous vectors with semantic meaning, we can get machines to reason more abstractly — and efficiently — than before.

All infinities go on forever, so how is it possible for some infinities to be larger than others? The mathematician Justin Moore discusses the mysteries of infinity with Steven Strogatz.

Crows recently demonstrated an understanding of the concept of zero. It’s only the latest evidence of animals’ talents for numerical abstraction — which may still differ from our own grasp of numbers.

Plants ignore the most energy-rich part of sunlight because stability matters more than efficiency, according to a new model of photosynthesis.

When the brain encodes memories as positive or negative, one molecule determines which way they will go.

Self-supervised learning allows a neural network to figure out for itself what matters. The process might be what makes our own brains so successful.

The problem of common-sense reasoning has plagued the field of artificial intelligence for over 50 years. Now a new approach, borrowing from two disparate lines of thinking, has made important…

By ignoring their goals, evolutionary algorithms have solved longstanding challenges in artificial intelligence.

Harry Halpin wants our internet conversations to be more private. He’s helped create a new kind of network that might make it possible.

In a watershed moment for cryptography, computer scientists have proposed a solution to a fundamental problem called “program obfuscation.”…

Cryptographers want to know which of five possible worlds we inhabit, which will reveal whether truly secure cryptography is even possible.

The existence of secure cryptography depends on one of the oldest questions in computational complexity.

Mathematicians try to figure out when problems can be solved using current knowledge — and when they have to chart a new path instead.

«“I think one of the reasons we were stonewalled was not because we didn’t have the right techniques, but because the problem wasn’t put in the right conceptual framework,” McMullen said. “The changed question suggested the changed techniques.”»

Leslie Lamport revolutionized how computers talk to each other. Now he’s working on how engineers talk to their machines.

The learning algorithm that enables the runaway success of deep neural networks doesn't work in biological brains, but researchers are finding alternatives that could.

After translating some of math’s complicated equations, researchers have created an AI system that they hope will answer even bigger questions.

Three computer scientists have solved the NLTS conjecture, proving that systems of entangled particles can remain difficult to analyze even away from extremes.

So-called “higher symmetries” are illuminating everything from particle decays to the behavior of complex quantum systems.

The unprecedented experiment explores the possibility that space-time somehow emerges from quantum information, even as the work’s interpretation remains disputed.

Lattice cryptography promises to protect secrets from the attacks of far-future quantum computers.

Physicists are building neural networks out of vibrations, voltages and lasers, arguing that the future of computing lies in exploiting the universe’s complex physical behaviors.

The key to understanding the origin and fate of the universe may be a more complete understanding of the vacuum.

Einstein’s description of curved space-time doesn’t easily mesh with a universe made up of quantum wavefunctions. Theoretical physicist Sean Carroll discusses the quest for quantum gravity with host Steven Strogatz.

Of all the endless questions children and mathematicians have asked about infinity, one of the most fascinating has to do with its size.

June Huh wasn’t interested in mathematics until a chance encounter during his sixth year of college. Now his profound insights connecting combinatorics and geometry have led to math’s highest honor.

Neuroscientists uncovered an energy-saving mode in vision-system neurons that works at the cost of being able to see fine-grained details.

Depression has often been blamed on low levels of serotonin in the brain. That answer is insufficient, but alternatives are coming into view and changing our understanding of the disease.