Quanta Magazine

Off the coast of Japan, biologists netted a pea-size jellyfish with an unusual biological clock — a chance finding that suggests there are likely more overlooked cellular timekeeping mechanisms to be discovered. @starlingmarlowe reports: quantamagazine.org/the-jellies-th…

In Pan de Azúcar National Park in Chile’s Atacama Desert are pebbles known locally as “maicillo” and in English as “grit.” Rich colonies of hidden microbial life dwell in their crevices and bind them together into thin crusts. quantamagazine.org/in-a-fierce-de…

Nicolas Decat, a grad student at the Paris Brain Institute, recently recorded the brain waves of over 100 people as they were falling asleep. His data shows that the line between dreams and reality is blurry. quantamagazine.org/how-the-brain-…

Japan’s Sendai Bay can be seen from a small island inhabited by only a few dozen fishers and shellfish farmers. Thousands of jellyfish bob in the water below. These jellies keep time in a way unlike most other creatures in the animal kingdom. quantamagazine.org/the-jellies-th…

Next time you sip wine at a party, notice the tears dripping down the inside walls of your glass. The same tensile force that causes wine tears also causes embryos to develop a head-to-tail axis. quantamagazine.org/genes-have-har…

Why do some corals grow into tall and narrow columns, and others into massive domes? The answer is buried deep in each coral polyp’s biological programming. quantamagazine.org/the-elegant-ma…

When Turing award winners Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard began working together, the exploration of quantum information was a bit of a side hustle. “In those days, it was nobody’s day job,” Bennett said. An early paper of theirs would become one of the most famous works in quantum information science. quantamagazine.org/quantum-crypto…

Accurate timekeeping is crucial for species that reproduce through mass spawning, such as the 𝘊𝘭𝘺𝘵𝘪𝘢 𝘩𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘩𝘢𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢 jellyfish shown here. If there aren't sperm in the water when eggs arrive, there will be no next generation. quantamagazine.org/the-jellies-th…

The artist Salvador Dalí (left), known for surrealist paintings such as his 1952 “Galatea of the Spheres” (right), experimented with boosting his creativity by waking himself during his brain’s transition into sleep. quantamagazine.org/how-the-brain-…

This is the Noperthedron. A portmanteau of “nope” and “Rupert,” it is the only known shape that does not have a trait called Rupert’s property. No matter how you bore a straight tunnel through it, a second Noperthedron cannot fit through. quantamagazine.org/first-shape-fo…

Together, Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard figured out how to use the laws of quantum physics to keep secret messages safe from eavesdroppers. Their efforts have earned them one of the highest awards in computing and a $1 million prize. quantamagazine.org/quantum-crypto…

No matter where you look, a bell curve is close by. Measure enough heights, weights, SAT scores, marathon times — you’ll always get the same smooth, rounded hump that tapers at the edges. Why does the bell curve pop up in so many datasets? quantamagazine.org/the-math-that-…

To this theoretical physicist, time is not a basic ingredient of reality. quantamagazine.org/carlo-rovellis…

Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard are this year’s A.M. Turing Award winners. They met in October 1979, when Bennett swam up to Brassard outside a beachfront hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and changed the course of his career. quantamagazine.org/quantum-crypto…

In the 17th century, Abraham de Moivre fled from France to England due to anti-Protestant persecution. To help pay his bills, he provided London gamblers with math-backed advice. His observations led him to write The Doctrine of Chances, the very first textbook on probability theory. quantamagazine.org/the-math-that-…

How many paper clips are in this jar? Record 100 guesses, and they’ll follow a bell curve. quantamagazine.org/the-math-that-…

Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard have been named the winners of the A.M. Turing Award, one of the highest honors in computing, for their work establishing the foundations of quantum information theory. The award comes with a $1 million prize. quantamagazine.org/quantum-crypto…

Flipping a coin, rolling a die, and drawing a card from a deck are all random actions. In the 18th century, mathematician Abraham de Moivre studied how patterns can emerge from the chaos. quantamagazine.org/the-math-that-…

Pushed down to a certain scale, the laws of physics seem to fall apart. Astrid Eichhorn, a leader in an area of study called asymptotic safety, thinks we just need to push a little further. quantamagazine.org/where-some-see…

AI breakthroughs have made humanoid robots more capable than ever. But they still struggle with everyday tasks like stairs and doors. quantamagazine.org/why-do-humanoi…