A new thought experiment indicates that quantum mechanics doesn’t work without strange numbers that turn negative when squared. The post Imaginary Numbers May Be Essential for Describing Reality first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

An overlooked but powerful driver of cloud formation could accelerate the loss of polar sea ice. The post Cloud-Making Aerosol Could Devastate Polar Sea Ice first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

One black hole is nice, but astrophysicists can do a lot more science with 50 of them. The post Growing Inventory of Black Holes Offers a Radical Probe of the Cosmos first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

A new study shows that extreme black holes could break the famous “no-hair” theorem, and in a way that we could detect. The post In Violation of Einstein, Black Holes Might Have ‘Hair’ first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

A group of MIT undergraduates is searching for tetrahedra that tile space, the latest effort in a millennia-long inquiry. They’ve already made a new discovery. The post Undergraduates Hunt for Special Tetrahedra That Fit Together first appeared on Qu

Unusual proteins that can quickly fold into different shapes provide cells with a novel regulatory mechanism. The post Some Proteins Change Their Folds to Perform Different Jobs first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

Small black holes were nowhere to be found, leading astronomers to wonder if they didn’t exist at all. Now a series of findings, including a “unicorn” black hole, has raised hopes of solving the decade-long mystery. The post ‘Unicorn’ Discovery Point

Since they can’t prod actual universes as they inflate and bump into each other in the hypothetical multiverse, physicists are studying digital and physical analogs of the process. The post Physicists Study How Universes Might Bubble Up and Collide f

Three-dimensional supernova simulations have solved the mystery of why they explode at all. The post Secret Ingredient Found to Power Supernovas first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

In grafted plants, shrunken chloroplasts can jump between species by slipping through unexpected gateways in cell walls. The post Plant Cells of Different Species Can Swap Organelles first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

Frank Wilczek has been at the forefront of theoretical physics for the past 50 years. He talks about winning the Nobel Prize for work he did as a student, his solution to the dark matter problem, and the God of a scientist.

A glass sponge found deep in the Pacific shows a remarkable ability to withstand compression and bending, on top of the sponge’s other unusual properties. The post The Curious Strength of a Sea Sponge’s Glass Skeleton first appeared on Quanta Magazin

For decades, astronomers debated whether a particular smudge was close-by and small, or distant and huge. A new X-ray map supports the massive option. The post Galaxy-Size Bubbles Discovered Towering Over the Milky Way first appeared on Quanta Magazi

Two teams found different ways for quantum computers to process nonlinear systems by first disguising them as linear ones.

Mistletoes have all but shut down the powerhouses of their cells. Scientists are still trying to understand the plants’ unorthodox survival strategy.

We don’t know why the universe appears to be expanding faster than it should. New ultra-precise distance measurements have only intensified the problem.

The goal of the “busy beaver” game is to find the longest-running computer program. Its pursuit has surprising connections to some of the most profound questions and concepts in mathematics.

Collider physicists report that several measurements of particles called B mesons deviate from predictions. Alone, each oddity looks like a fluke, but their collective drift is more suggestive.

Studies of collective behavior usually focus on how crowds of organisms coordinate their actions. But what if the individuals that don’t participate have just as much to tell us?

A lizard that both lays eggs and gives birth to live young is helping scientists understand how and why these forms of reproduction evolved.

Anyons don’t fit into either of the two known particle kingdoms. To find them, physicists had to erase the third dimension.

Two ways of approximating the ultra-complicated math that governs quark particles have recently come into conflict, leaving physicists unsure what their decades-old theory predicts.

In the fight against viruses and other pathogens, scientists are looking beyond genes and proteins to the complex sugars, or glycans, on cell surfaces.

Modern mathematics relies on collaboration and travel. COVID-19 is making it increasingly difficult.

Physicists have proposed extra cosmic ingredients that could explain the faster-than-expected expansion of space.

Black holes, by definition, are so dense that not even light can escape. But ask any astrophysicist, and they’ll report that black holes are among some of the brightest objects in the universe. What’s going on here? The answer, in part, is that black

When a fault slips, it unleashes a torrent of seismic waves, not all of them alike. Long low-frequency waves can travel far from their source and cause tall structures like skyscrapers to sway, while high-frequency waves are excellent at shaking hous

The legendary mathematician, who died on April 11, was curious, colorful and one of the greatest problem-solvers of his generation.

The first official evidence of a key imbalance between neutrinos and antineutrinos provides one of the best clues for why the universe contains something rather than nothing.

A landmark proof in computer science has also solved an important problem called the Connes embedding conjecture. Mathematicians are working to understand it.