The Vacuum of Space Will Decay Sooner Than Expected
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Vacuum decay, a process that could end the universe as we know it, may happen 10,000 times sooner than expected. …
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The Physics of Cold Water May Have Jump-Started Complex Life
After 30 days, the algae in the middle were still unicellular. As the scientists put algae from thicker and thicker rings under the microscope, however, they found larger clumps of …
‘Gem’ of a Proof Breaks 80-Year-Old Record, Offers New Insights Into Prime Numbers
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Sometimes mathematicians try to tackle a problem head on, and sometimes they come at it sideways. That’s especially true when …
Uncovering Magnetism’s Mysterious Role in the Galaxy
When were you first drawn to learning about it? I don’t think that was from some deep-seated, lifelong need to study magnetism, but it grabbed me in grad school as …
The Puzzle of How Large-Scale Order Emerges in Complex Systems
A complex system exhibits emergence, according to the new framework, by organizing itself into a hierarchy of levels that each operate independently of the details of the lower levels. The …
Everything You See Is a Computational Process, If You Know How to Look
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. In the movie Oppenheimer, Niels Bohr challenges the physicist early in his career: Bohr: Algebra is like sheet music. The important thing …
Cryptographers Are Discovering New Rules for Quantum Encryption
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Say you want to send a private message, cast a secret vote, or sign a document securely. If you do …
How the Brain Decides What to Remember
“There has to be some kind of triage to remember what is relevant and forget the rest,” Zugaro said. “Understanding how specific memories were selected for storage was still lacking …
What Came Before the Big Bang?
Robert Brandenberger, a physicist at McGill University who was not involved with the study, said the new paper “sets a new standard of rigor for the analysis” of the mathematics …
Light-Based Chips Could Help Slake AI’s Ever-Growing Thirst for Energy
“What we have here is something incredibly simple,” said Tianwei Wu, the study’s lead author. “We can reprogram it, changing the laser patterns on the fly.” The researchers used the …