Quanta Magazine

Quanta Magazine is an online publication created by the Simons Foundation, aimed at improving public knowledge of science while maintaining editorial independence. The name "Quanta" comes from Albert Einstein's reference to photons as “quanta of light,” reflecting our mission to shed light on scientific topics. Our team of reporters covers advancements in fields like mathematics, theoretical physics, theoretical computer science, and the foundational life sciences. While many traditional news outlets excel at reporting on practical science topics such as health, medicine, technology, engineering, and environmental issues, we aim to enhance and expand upon the existing media landscape.

International

English

Online/Digital

Outlet metrics

Domain Authority

Ranking

Global

#45250

United States

#18831

Science and Education/Physics

Traffic sources

Monthly visitors

Articles

Singularities in Space-Time Prove Hard to Kill

1 week ago | quantamagazine.org | Charlie Wood

Two blind spots torture physicists: the birth of the universe and the center of a black hole. The former may feel like a moment in time and the latter a point in space, but in both cases the normally interwoven threads of space and time seem to stop short. These mysterious points are known as singularities. Singularities are predictions of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
Graduate Student Solves Classic Problem About the Limits of Addition

2 weeks ago | quantamagazine.org | Leila Sloman

The simplest ideas in mathematics can also be the most perplexing. Take addition. It’s a straightforward operation: One of the first mathematical truths we learn is that 1 plus 1 equals 2. But mathematicians still have many unanswered questions about the kinds of patterns that addition can give rise to. “This is one of the most basic things you can do,” said Benjamin Bedert, a graduate student at the University of Oxford.
For Algorithms, a Little Memory Outweighs a Lot of Time

2 weeks ago | quantamagazine.org | Ben Brubaker

One of the most important classes goes by the humble name “P.” Roughly speaking, it encompasses all problems that can be solved in a reasonable amount of time. An analogous complexity class for space is dubbed “PSPACE.”The relationship between these two classes is one of the central questions of complexity theory. Every problem in P is also in PSPACE, because fast algorithms just don’t have enough time to fill up much space in a computer’s memory.
‘Turbocharged’ Mitochondria Power Birds’ Epic Migratory Journeys

2 weeks ago | quantamagazine.org | Elizabeth Landau

Coulson, who was a graduate student with Staples and Guglielmo at the time, led a study on the yellow-rumped warbler, a songbird that migrates between Canada, where it nests, and its wintering grounds in the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean. First, during the birds’ fall migration, they captured the southbound songbirds and brought them into the lab. There, they managed the birds’ exposure to light and darkness to create two laboratory groups of “migratory” and “nonmigratory” warblers.
The Quanta Podcast

3 weeks ago | quantamagazine.org | John Pavlus

We care about your data, and we'd like to use cookies to give you a smooth browsing experience. Please agree and read more about our privacy policy.
Introducing The Quanta Podcast

3 weeks ago | quantamagazine.org | Samir S. Patel

The Quanta Podcast is your weekly dispatch from the frontiers of science and mathematics. As editor in chief of the magazine, every day I am blown away by the passion and knowledge of our writers and editors. So in each episode of our new podcast, I will be speaking with them to dig into some of our most popular, interesting and thought-provoking stories. The first episode of The Quanta Podcast will be live on May 20.
The Fastest Way Yet to Color Graphs

3 weeks ago | quantamagazine.org | Steve Nadis

Here’s a scary scenario: You’ve been put in charge of air traffic control at Newark airport near New York. You need to make sure every plane can taxi between the runway and its gate without hitting any other planes. Let’s bring the power of mathematics to bear on your problem. First, create a big, abstract map of your airport. For each runway, taxiway and gate, mark a point.
Finding Beauty and Truth in Mundane Occurrences

4 weeks ago | quantamagazine.org | Charlie Wood

A stain drying on the counter. A raindrop splashing onto the sidewalk. A pile of gravel settling. Historically, such phenomena have rarely caught the attention of physicists, as they seem mundane and devoid of fundamental significance. At the same time, these everyday happenings are also deceptively hard to understand. Out of balance and disordered, they sit outside the comfort zone of the typical physicist. But Sidney Nagel of the University of Chicago is not typical.
Dimension 126 Contains Strangely Twisted Shapes, Mathematicians Prove

1 month ago | quantamagazine.org | Erica Klarreich

It can be tempting to assume that your intuitions about three-dimensional space carry over to higher-dimensional realms. After all, adding another dimension simply creates a new direction to move around in. It doesn’t change the defining features of space: its endlessness and its uniformity. But different dimensions have decidedly different personalities. In dimensions 8 and 24, it’s possible to pack balls together especially tightly.
Where Do Scientists Think This Is All Going?

1 month ago | quantamagazine.org | Michael Moyer

In the course of reporting this series on the impact of artificial intelligence on science and math, Quanta writers interviewed close to 100 experts — computer scientists, biologists, physicists, mathematicians and many others. Just about everyone reported seeing the impact of AI in their professional lives, some for an obvious reason: They had some kind of hand in building the technology itself.