Archive

In three towering papers, a team of mathematicians has worked out the details of Liouville quantum field theory, a two-dimensional model of quantum gravity.

Animals sculpt the optical properties of their tissues at the nanoscale to give themselves “structural colors.” New work is piecing together how they do it.

Federica Coppari uses the world’s most powerful laser to recreate the cores of distant worlds.

Superconductivity has been discovered in graphene devices without any twists, suggesting the form of superconductivity in the material might be mundane after all.

The accelerating effort to understand the mathematics of quantum field theory will have profound consequences for both math and physics.

The discovery of a gene shared by two unrelated species of fish is the latest evidence that horizontal gene transfers occur surprisingly often in vertebrates.

To understand what quantum computers can do — and what they can’t — avoid falling for overly simple explanations.

Scientists have long struggled to understand how common planets form. A new supercomputer simulation shows that the missing ingredient may be magnetism.

A new proof establishes the boundary at which a shape becomes so corrugated, it can be crushed.