The idea of ‘biological agency’ — that life devises its own goals and behaves accordingly — complicates our understanding of ...

When checking that solutions to certain problems are correct, it turns out, you can’t get around the inherent complexity of ...

Faced with observations of early black holes and galaxies that weren’t expected to exist, scientists have come up with a ...

Decades ago, Paul Erdős used randomness to illuminate the vast and weird world of networks. Now mathematicians are making his ...

The mechanical process of cell division exerts powerful, if microscopic, forces. How do the molecular machines that power it ...

A decades-old proof showed that seven shuffles are enough to mix up a deck of cards. But it requires you to cut the deck with the precision of a professional magician. A new proof gets around that ...

Scientists built a synthetic cell that combines more lifelike properties than ever before — proof of concept that it’s possible to bring nonliving materials to life, or something close to it, in the ...

A $1 million prize awaits anyone who can show where the math of fluid flow breaks down. With specially trained AI systems, researchers have found a slew of new candidates in simpler versions of the ...

In holographic theories, physicists may have traced the pliability of space-time to its quantum roots: a measure of quantumness known as “magic.” Key Chemistry Question Answered, No Quantum Computer ...

Two research groups say they have significantly reduced the amount of qubits and time required to crack common online security technologies. The Quanta Newsletter ...

Ultrafinitism, a philosophy that rejects the infinite, has long been dismissed as mathematical heresy. But it is also producing new insights in math and beyond. His two theorems destroyed the search ...

Geometry may have its origins thousands of years ago in ancient land surveying, but it has also had a surprising impact on modern physics. In the latest episode of The Joy of Why, Yang-Hui He explores ...