Quanta Magazine

How many pieces are there in the Standard Model of particle physics? It depends on whom you ask. Read the latest Qualia column:

More than 2 billion years ago, there may have been a time when dark energy grew stronger, in seeming defiance of the law of energy conservation. Researchers refer to this as dark energy entering the “phantom regime.”

Physicists mapped the hidden geometry that underlies the quantum behaviors of a crystal, using a method that’s expected to become ubiquitous.

You’d think we’d know exactly how many elementary particles make up the matter and forces in the observable universe. Well, sort of. Tune in to The Quanta Podcast:

Introduced by Bernhard Riemann in the mid-19th century, manifolds are crucial to our understanding of the universe.

Powerful quantum computers that can break standard encryption may be just years away, rather than decades. “If you care about privacy or you have secrets, then you better start looking for alternatives,” said mathematical physicist Nikolas Breuckmann.

Over two billion years, a fierce battle has raged between bacteria and the viruses that infect them. The resulting evolution has shaped the way our bodies fight disease today. quantamagazine.org/the-ancient-we…

Generally, dark energy and dark matter are regarded as separate entities. But what if the two are in fact physically intertwined? And what if they even have a common origin?

Iceland is a floating fortress of volcanoes. That’s partly because the country sits atop the boundary of two diverging tectonic plates; it’s constantly being pulled in two. quantamagazine.org/when-coupled-v…

The state of oceans and ice sheets — and, in turn, the climate — in 2100 will depend heavily on where they are right now. quantamagazine.org/the-climate-ch…

In 2022, software engineer Shawn Ligocki discovered a six-rule Turing machine. Its runtime has more digits than the number of atoms in the universe. quantamagazine.org/busy-beaver-hu…

Qualia columns go where curiosity leads. This week, plummet down another rabbit hole with Natalie Wolchover. This one gets into the mysterious nature of the very building blocks of reality.

When Persi Diaconis was 14 years old, he ran away from home to apprentice with a magician. Ten years later, he went back to school to become a professional mathematician. Today, card tricks play a role in his research. quantamagazine.org/seven-perfect-…

“I can’t help but feel flummoxed. And apparently that’s the general reaction.”

The humble “riffle shuffle” is more complicated than you might think. The number of ways an ordinary deck of cards can be arranged is close to the estimated number of atoms in our galaxy.

Most creatures use daylight to keep time. But a newly discovered jellyfish species has a mysterious biological clock that tracks periods of 20 hours, instead of 24. It suggests there may be more unconventional clocks across the tree of life.

These are Mooney images, research tools made by turning contrast up on images until they’re nearly unrecognizable. Recently, researchers used these images to study what happens in the brain during a sudden realization. Can you guess what they are? quantamagazine.org/how-your-brain…

The human genome is less of a blueprint and more of a three-dimensional puzzle that gets harder the closer you look. “I wouldn’t have designed it this way if I was God,” said genome biologist Wendy Bickmore. “But here we are!”

In 1969, a fireball appeared over Mexico. The Allende meteorite spread its debris over more than 500 square kilometers. Its chemical contents surprised scientists: It seemed to suggest that a nearby supernova triggered the formation of our solar system. quantamagazine.org/what-crystals-…

Meet the ultimate gatekeeper of the nucleus. This molecular machine determines what compounds are welcome inside and which shall not pass. The mechanism behind its selectivity remains a mystery. quantamagazine.org/disorder-drive…