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What’s Going On Inside Io, Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon?
Recent flybys of the fiery world refute a leading theory of its inner structure — and reveal how little is understood about geologically active moons.
Improving Deep Learning With a Little Help From Physics
Rose Yu has a plan for how to make AI better, faster and smarter — and it’s already yielding results.
How a Biofilm’s Strange Shape Emerges From Cellular Geometry
Micro decisions can have macro consequences. A soft matter physicist reveals how interactions within simple cellular collectives can lead to emergent physical traits.
New Proof Settles Decades-Old Bet About Connected Networks
According to mathematical legend, Peter Sarnak and Noga Alon made a bet about optimal graphs in the late 1980s. They’ve now both been proved wrong.
Can Quantum Gravity Be Created in the Lab?
Quantum gravity could help physicists unite the currently incompatible worlds of quantum mechanics and gravity. In this episode, Monika Schleier-Smith discusses her pioneering experimental approach, using laser-cooled atoms to explore whether gravity could emerge from quantum entanglement.
Touch, Our Most Complex Sense, Is a Landscape of Cellular Sensors
Every soft caress of wind, searing burn and seismic rumble is detected by our skin’s tangle of touch sensors. David Ginty has spent his career cataloging the neurons beneath everyday sensations.
To Make Language Models Work Better, Researchers Sidestep Language
We insist that large language models repeatedly translate their mathematical processes into words. There may be a better way.
‘Paraparticles’ Would Be a Third Kingdom of Quantum Particle
A new proposal makes the case that paraparticles — a new category of quantum particle — could be created in exotic materials.
Where Does Meaning Live in a Sentence? Math Might Tell Us.
The mathematician Tai-Danae Bradley is using category theory to try to understand both human and AI-generated language.