A New Map of All the Particles and Forces | Quanta Magazine
WEBOct 22, 2020 · We’ve created a new way to explore the fundamental constituents of the universe. Ashley Mackenzie for Quanta Magazine. [Editor’s note: The full, interactive map is available below.] All of nature springs from a handful of components — the fundamental particles — that interact with one another in only a few different ways.
How Earth’s Climate Changes Naturally (and Why Things Are …
WEBJul 21, 2020 · Earth’s climate has fluctuated through deep time, pushed by these 10 different causes. Here’s how each compares with modern climate change. Orbital wobbles, plate tectonics, evolutionary changes and other factors have sent the planet in and out of ice ages. Pablo A. Cumillaf. Earth has been a snowball and a …
Why Are Plants Green? To Reduce the Noise in Photosynthesis.
WEBJul 30, 2020 · Plants ignore the most energy-rich part of sunlight because stability matters more than efficiency, according to a new model of photosynthesis. Land plants are green because their photosynthetic pigments reflect green light, even though those wavelengths hold the most energy. Scientists finally understand why. …
The Mystery at the Heart of Physics That Only Math Can Solve
WEBJun 10, 2021 · The accelerating effort to understand the mathematics of quantum field theory will have profound consequences for both math and physics. Olena Shmahalo/Quanta Magazine. Over the past century, quantum field theory has proved to be the single most sweeping and successful physical theory ever invented. It is an umbrella term that encompasses many ...
Emily Singer - Quanta Magazine
WEBSep 22, 2016 · Emily Singer is a former senior biology writer and contributing editor at Quanta Magazine.Previously, she was the news editor for SFARI.org and the biomedical editor for Technology Review.She has written for Nature, New Scientist, the Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe, and has a master’s in neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego.
Mathematician Proves Huge Result on ‘Dangerous’ Problem
WEBDec 11, 2019 · Lothar Collatz likely posed the eponymous conjecture in the 1930s. The problem sounds like a party trick. Pick a number, any number. If it’s odd, multiply it by 3 and add 1. If it’s even, divide it by 2. Now you have a new number. Apply the same rules to the new number. The conjecture is about what happens as you keep repeating the process.
How Claude Shannon Invented the Future | Quanta Magazine
WEBDec 22, 2020 · In that sense, he was a scientist. Shannon invented new mathematics to describe the laws of communication. He introduced new ideas, like the entropy rate of a probabilistic model, which have been applied in far-ranging branches of mathematics such as ergodic theory, the study of long-term behavior of dynamical systems.
Computer Science - Quanta Magazine
WEBSep 11, 2024 · By Janna Levin. August 1, 2024. Cryptography is the thread that connects Julius Caesar, World War II and quantum computing, and it now lies under nearly every part of modern life. In this week’s episode, computer scientist Boaz Barak and co-host Janna Levin discuss the past and future of secrecy. Q&A.
Topology 101: The Hole Truth | Quanta Magazine
WEBJan 26, 2021 · For instance, in 1813 the Swiss mathematician Simon Lhuilier recognized that if we punch a hole in a polyhedron to make it more donut-shaped, changing its topology, then V – E + F = 0. Samuel Velasco/Quanta Magazine. Interestingly, while Euler and Lhuilier imagined their polyhedra as solid, Euler’s formula is …
What Is a Particle? - Quanta Magazine
WEBNov 12, 2020 · A Particle Is a ‘Collapsed Wave Function’ 1. The quest to understand nature’s fundamental building blocks began with the ancient Greek philosopher Democritus’s assertion that such things exist. Two millennia later, Isaac Newton and Christiaan Huygens debated whether light is made of particles or waves.