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The Universal Pattern Popping Up in Math, Physics and Biology
Quanta’s In Theory video series returns with an exploration of a mysterious mathematical pattern found throughout nature.
Victoria Meadows’ Earthly Visions of Alien Life
A living, breathing garden in Seattle serves as the perfect backdrop to an astrobiologist’s search for life on faraway planets.
Plunge Into a (Virtual Reality) Black Hole
Join a fleet of robotic probes on a one-way virtual-reality trip into the abyss of a massive black hole.
Seeing the Beautiful Intelligence of Microbes
Bacterial biofilms and slime molds are more than crude patches of goo. Detailed time-lapse microscopy reveals how they sense and explore their surroundings, communicate with their neighbors and adaptively reshape themselves.
From the Edge of the Universe to the Inside of a Proton
The Zoomable Universe, a new book by the astrobiologist Caleb Scharf, the illustrator Ron Miller and 5W Infographics, tours the universe’s 62 orders of magnitude.
Jason Morgan Recalls Discovering Earth’s Tectonic Plates
Jason Morgan developed the theory of plate tectonics in 1967 while working among a critical mass of talented geophysicists at Princeton University.
Janet Conrad, Seeker of Neutrinos and Other Curiosities
The physicist and curios collector hopes to reveal the hidden structure lurking in the subatomic world.
Joe Polchinski’s Restless Pursuit of Quantum Gravity
The pot-stirring string theorist and quantum gravity theorist never sits still for long.
Eva Silverstein’s Spirals and Strings
Daily bike rides, serendipitous interactions and long periods of solo thinking inspire this string cosmologist.