The Quanta Podcast

After 44 years, there’s finally a better way to find approximate solutions to the notoriously difficult traveling salesperson problem. The post Computer Scientists Break Traveling Salesperson Record first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Research hints that the energy-generating organelles of cells may play a surprisingly pivotal role in mediating anxiety and depression. The post Mitochondria May Hold Keys to Anxiety and Mental Health first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Astronomers are discovering that magnetic fields permeate much of the cosmos. If these fields date back to the Big Bang, they could solve a major cosmological mystery. The post The Hidden Magnetic Universe Begins to Come Into View first appeared on Quanta Magazine

It took Lisa Piccirillo less than a week to answer a long-standing question about a strange knot discovered over half a century ago by the legendary John Conway. The post Graduate Student Solves Decades-Old Conway Knot Problem first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Rogue waves — enigmatic giants of the sea — were thought to be caused by two different mechanisms. But a new idea that borrows from the hinterlands of probability theory has the potential to predict them all. The post The Grand Unified Theory of Rogue Waves first appeared on Quanta Magazine

The dendritic arms of some human neurons can perform logic operations that once seemed to require whole neural networks. The post Hidden Computational Power Found in the Arms of Neurons first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Three physicists stumbled across an unexpected relationship between some of the most ubiquitous objects in math. The post Neutrinos Lead to Unexpected Discovery in Basic Math first appeared on Quanta Magazine

A tool known as BERT can now beat humans on advanced reading-comprehension tests. But it's also revealed how far AI has to go. The post Machines Beat Humans on a Reading Test. But Do They Understand? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Only 170 million years ago, new plankton evolved. Their demand for carbon and calcium permanently transformed the seas as homes for life. The post How Jurassic Plankton Stole Control of the Ocean’s Chemistry first appeared on Quanta Magazine

A brain circuit that suppresses distracting sensory information holds important clues about attention and other cognitive processes. The post To Pay Attention, the Brain Uses Filters, Not a Spotlight first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Modern humans and more ancient hominins interbred many times throughout Eurasia and Africa, and the genetic flow went both ways. The post Fossil DNA Reveals New Twists in Modern Human Origins first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Modeling suggests that many embryonic cells commit to a developmental fate when they become too small to divide unevenly anymore. The post For Embryo’s Cells, Size Can Determine Fate first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Theories about how animals became multicellular are shifting as researchers find greater complexity in our single-celled ancestors. The post Scientists Debate the Origin of Cell Types in the First Animals first appeared on Quanta Magazine

After an interstellar asteroid shot past the sun, scientists realized that there’s probably a lot of itinerant rocks out there. The post Wandering Space Rocks Help Solve Mysteries of Planet Formation first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Mathematicians have proved that a random process applied to a random surface will yield consistent patterns. The post Random Surfaces Hide an Intricate Order first appeared on Quanta Magazine

To researchers’ surprise, deep learning vision algorithms often fail at classifying images because they mostly take cues from textures, not shapes. The post Where We See Shapes, AI Sees Textures first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Researchers struggle to incorporate ongoing evolutionary discoveries into an animal classification scheme older than Darwin. The post What’s in a Name? Taxonomy Problems Vex Biologists first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Contrary to popular belief, bacteria have organelles too. Scientists are now studying them for insights into how complex cells evolved. The post Bacterial Complexity Revises Ideas About ‘Which Came First?’ first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Surviving fragments of genetic material preserved in sediments allow scientists to see the full diversity of past life — even microbes. The post Ancient DNA Yields Snapshots of Vanished Ecosystems first appeared on Quanta Magazine

The universe of problems that a computer can check has grown. The researchers’ secret ingredient? Quantum entanglement. The post Computer Scientists Expand the Frontier of Verifiable Knowledge first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Two women programmers played a pivotal role in the birth of chaos theory. Their previously untold story illustrates the changing status of computation in science.  Read more at quantamagazine.org. Music is “Clover 3” by Vibe Mountain.

In harsh ecosystems around the world, microbiologists are finding evidence that “microbial seed banks” protect biodiversity from changing conditions. The post Heat-Loving Microbes, Once Dormant, Thrive Over Decades-Old Fire first appeared on Quanta Magazine

In a world seemingly filled with chaos, physicists have discovered new forms of synchronization and are learning how to predict and control them. The post Scientists Discover Exotic New Patterns of Synchronization first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Researchers have just released hacker-proof cryptographic code — programs with the same level of invincibility as a mathematical proof. The post Cryptography That Is Provably Secure first appeared on Quanta Magazine

During development, cells seem to decode their fate through optimal information processing, which could hint at a more general principle of life. The post The Math That Tells Cells What They Are first appeared on Quanta Magazine