All articles from Quanta Magazine
The Year in Computer Science
Explore the year’s most surprising computational revelations, including a new fundamental relationship between time and space, an undergraduate who overthrew a 40-year-old conjecture, and the unexpect
The Year in Biology
Take a jaunt through a jungle of strange neurons underlying your sense of touch, hundreds of millions of years of animal evolution and the dense neural networks of brains and AIs. The post
String Theory Inspires a Brilliant, Baffling New Math Proof
Years ago, an audacious Fields medalist outlined a sweeping program that, he claimed, could be used to resolve a major problem in algebraic geometry. Other mathematicians had their doubts. Now he says
Cryptographers Show That AI Protections Will Always Have Holes
Large language models such as ChatGPT come with filters to keep certain info from getting out. A new mathematical argument shows that systems like this can never be completely safe. The p
Why Is Ice Slippery? A New Hypothesis Slides Into the Chat.
A newly proposed explanation for the slipperiness of ice has revived a centuries-long debate. The post Why Is Ice Slippery? A New Hypothesis Slides Into the Chat. first appeared on Quanta
The Polyglot Neuroscientist Resolving How the Brain Parses Language
Is language core to thought, or a separate process? For 15 years, the neuroscientist Ev Fedorenko has gathered evidence of a language network in the human brain — and has found some parallels to LLMs.
What Are Lie Groups?
By combining the language of groups with that of geometry and linear algebra, Marius Sophus Lie created one of math’s most powerful tools. The post What Are Lie Groups? first appeared on Q