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How Triangulation Leads to Knowledge

January 4, 2018

What does measuring distances in sailing and astrophysics have to with motion sickness?

Physicists Aim to Classify All Possible Phases of Matter

January 3, 2018

A complete classification could lead to a wealth of new materials and technologies. But some exotic phases continue to resist understanding.

Is a Bigger Genetic Code Better? Get Ready to Find Out

January 2, 2018

Evolution settled on a genetic code that uses four letters to name 20 amino acids. Synthetic biologists adding new bases to DNA will be free to improve on nature — if they can.

Quanta’s Science and Math Crossword Puzzle

December 22, 2017

This holiday season, catch up on science and math news while solving our year-end crossword.

Mathematicians Find Wrinkle in Famed Fluid Equations

December 21, 2017

Two mathematicians prove that under certain extreme conditions, the Navier-Stokes equations output nonsense.

Q&A

A Mathematician Who Decodes the Patterns Stamped Out by Life

December 20, 2017

Corina Tarnita deciphers bizarre patterns in the soil created by competing life-forms.

The End of the RNA World Is Near, Biochemists Argue

December 19, 2017

For decades, an origin-of-life story starring RNA has prevailed. New research may be shaking that theory’s hold on our understanding of life’s beginnings.

Why Is M-Theory the Leading Candidate for Theory of Everything?

December 18, 2017

The mother of all string theories passes a litmus test that, so far, no other candidate theory of quantum gravity has been able to match.

Light-Triggered Genes Reveal the Hidden Workings of Memory

December 14, 2017

Nobel laureate Susumu Tonegawa’s lab is overturning old assumptions about how memories form, how recall works and whether lost memories might be restored from "silent engrams."

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