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Illuminating math and science. Supported by the Simons Foundation. 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting. www.quantamagazine.org
@quantamagazine.orgThroughout nature, an army of genes gives rise to a very limited number of cell types. How does this selection process occur? https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-does-life-unfold-a-landscape-metaphor-comes-into-its-own-20261009/
@quantamagazine.orgTwo new proofs, one by humans and one by AI, have brought researchers a big step closer to a unified theory of computational difficulty.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/as-ai-closed-in-on-unique-games-proof-researchers-raced-to-beat-the-machines-20261007/
@quantamagazine.orgViruses evolve at an "insanely high” pace, said microbiologist Philip Kranzusch. And yet, weirdly, our immune defenses share many ancient antiviral tools with bacteria. “Why would the rules be so fixed?” https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-ancient-weapons-active-in-your-immune-system-today-20260415/
@quantamagazine.orgSimple counting questions help mathematicians study the objects that live inside exotic number systems. https://www.quantamagazine.org/new-math-revives-geometrys-oldest-problems-20250926/#
@quantamagazine.orgNew post on Transformation: Cracks appear in OpenAI’s wall of proofs https://www.quantamagazine.org/updates/transformation/#167798
@quantamagazine.orgIn the mid 1900s, not everyone even believed that genes played a significant role in development. C.H. Waddington’s iconic epigenetic landscapes helped to change that. New data both confirms and complicates his ideas. www.quantamagazine.org/how-does-lif...
@quantamagazine.orgStrangely twisted shapes exist in dimension 126. https://www.quantamagazine.org/dimension-126-contains-strangely-twisted-shapes-mathematicians-prove-20250505/#
@quantamagazine.orgMath graduate students find good jobs and earn credit and recognition based on the theorems they prove. What happens now if AI is solving all the problems? https://www.quantamagazine.org/is-ai-the-end-of-math-as-we-know-it-20261005/
@quantamagazine.orgEvery telescope during the century before 1980 used glass plate photography. Stored in stable conditions and not piled up with weight on top, they can endure for centuries. https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-modern-and-antique-technologies-reveal-a-dynamic-cosmos-20260202/#
@quantamagazine.orgIn mathematics, the journey matters more than the destination. AI’s murky proofs and speedy answers are upending this foundational principle of the field. https://www.quantamagazine.org/is-ai-the-end-of-math-as-we-know-it-20261005/
@quantamagazine.org🎧 Tune in: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
@quantamagazine.orgThe Quanta Podcast has been nominated for a Signal Award in Best Show Art!
🗳️ Vote for Kristina Armitage's design here: vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting...
@quantamagazine.orgWatch our video about chirality: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wDI...
@quantamagazine.orgRead about the awardees: www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemi...
@quantamagazine.orgFinally, in 2003 Soai improved the process, now known as the Soai reaction, to end up with 99.99% of one mirror-image form of a molecule. “Other than life itself, no one had previously achieved this feat,” according to the Nobel Prize write-up. 7/9
@quantamagazine.orgIn 1986, for the first time, Kagan created a way of manipulating chemical reactions to produce an excess of one of the mirror images. About a decade later, Soai found he could amplify this asymmetry to produce single-handed molecules in even greater abundance — but not the total solution. 6/9
@quantamagazine.orgChemists who tried to produce homochirality in the lab always ended up with both chiral versions of the molecule in equal proportions. This was a big problem for developing pharmaceuticals, as the wrong-handed version of the molecule can be toxic. 5/9
@quantamagazine.orgLife tends to use one of these forms exclusively. For example, the sugars that make up DNA are all right-handed, and the amino acids that make up proteins are all left-handed. In other words, life’s chemistry is “homochiral.” 4/9
@quantamagazine.orgThese chiral counterparts can have wholly different properties. For instance, mirror-image configurations of one molecule have different scents: Pine and citrus scents are opposite-handed chiral forms of the molecule limonene. 3/9
@quantamagazine.orgIn the 19th century, Louis Pasteur stumbled across one of the deepest mysteries about life inside crystalized dregs of wine. Some molecules can exist in two mirror-image arrangements: a left-handed form and a right-handed form. 2/9 www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-univ...
