Quanta Magazine

1 week ago | quantamagazine.org | Shalma Wegsman |Philip Ball |Charlie Wood |Steven Strogatz

Introduction Quantum gravity is one of the biggest unresolved and challenging problems in physics, as it seeks to reconcile quantum mechanics, which governs the microscopic world, and general relativity, which describes the macroscopic world of gravity and space-time.

1 week ago | quantamagazine.org | Ariel Bleicher |Yasemin Saplakoglu |Veronique Greenwood |Viviane Callier

Like many proud parents, David Ginty has decorated his office with pictures of his genetic creations. There’s the prickly one sporting a spiked collar and the wannabe cowboy twirling a lasso. There’s the dramatic one, always reacting to the slightest provocation; the observant one that notices every detail; the golden child Ginty loves to boast about. “They’re like a family,” he said.

1 week ago | quantamagazine.org | Anil Ananthaswamy |Ben Brubaker |Webb Wright |Janna Levin

Language isn’t always necessary. While it certainly helps in getting across certain ideas, some neuroscientists have argued that many forms of human thought and reasoning don’t require the medium of words and grammar. Sometimes, the argument goes, having to turn ideas into language actually slows down the thought process. Now there’s intriguing evidence that certain artificial intelligence systems could also benefit from “thinking” independently of language.

2 weeks ago | quantamagazine.org | Steve Nadis |Kevin Hartnett

Introduction Growing up, Tai-Danae Bradley had no love for math. In 2008, she entered the City College of New York, where she played for the basketball team and hoped to start a career in sports nutrition. She saw her math courses as a curricular hurdle that only geniuses could really excel in. “I’d have rather had all my teeth pulled than do it for a living,” she said. But in her sophomore year, her calculus professor changed her mind.

2 weeks ago | quantamagazine.org | Yasemin Saplakoglu

The findings emerge in a world enraptured by artificial forms of intelligence, and they could teach us something about how complex circuits in our own brains evolved. Perhaps most importantly, they could help us step “away from the idea that we are the best creatures in the world,” said Niklas Kempynck, a graduate student at KU Leuven who led one of the studies. “We are not this optimal solution to intelligence.”Birds got there too, on their own.