Quanta Magazine
Illuminating mathematics, physics, biology and computer science research through public service journalism.
quantamagazine.orgOne of the best science publications on the internet. Quanta covers breakthroughs in mathematics, physics, biology, and computer science with the kind of narrative depth that makes you feel like you actually understand the research. Funded by the Simons Foundation and editorially independent, it manages to be both rigorous and genuinely enjoyable to read.
Publishing since 2013.
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Can the Most Abstract Math Make the World a Better Place?
“I’ve spent a long time exploring the crystalline beauty of traditional mathematics, but now I’m feeling an urge to study something slightly more earthy,” John Baez wrote on his blog in 2011. An influential mathematical physicist who splits his time between the University of California, Riverside and the University of Edinburgh, Baez had grown increasingly concerned about the state of the planet… Source
What Crystals Older Than the Sun Reveal About the Start of the Solar System
The standard story of the origin of our solar system has gone like this: 4.6 billion years ago, a giant cloud of dust hung frozen in space. Then the explosion of a nearby star caused part of that dust cloud to collapse. Pulled by gravity toward a central point, the dust coalesced into a radiating ball of hydrogen and helium about 1.4 million kilometers in diameter — what would become our sun. Source
Break It To Make It: How Fracturing Sculpts Tissues and Organs
There’s a moment, just before the tight mass of cells that is a developing mouse embryo implants itself in the womb, that it all comes apart. Hundreds of tiny fluid-filled bubbles expand between each of the orb’s few dozen cells. The bubbles grow and press outward on cell membranes — and then, in a moment of fracture, pry them apart. Thin protein strands tether the cells together as the… Source
The Man Who Stole Infinity
When Demian Goos followed Karin Richter into her office on March 12 of last year, the first thing he noticed was the bust. It sat atop a tall pedestal in the corner of the room, depicting a bald, elderly gentleman with a stoic countenance. Goos saw no trace of the anxious, lonely man who had obsessed him for over a year. Instead, this was Georg Cantor as history saw him. An intellectual giant… Source
How Can Infinity Come in Many Sizes?
Intuition breaks down once we’re dealing with the endless. To begin with: Some infinities are bigger than others. The post How Can Infinity Come in Many Sizes? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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