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AI Has Solved One of Math’s $1 Million Millennium Prize Problems

Mathematicians at OpenAI showed that the Navier-Stokes equations, which describe how fluids flow, can sometimes “blow up.” But the massive result is not without controversy.

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In an Age of AI, a Physicist Seeks What Endures

Sarah Demers, chair of the physics department at Yale University, sees the potential for large language models to both help and harm her field.

Genome Duplication Is a Radical Evolutionary Gamble

By doubling their entire genome, organisms can evolve extremely rapidly — or they can lose it all. New studies reveal how to survive the high-risk, high-reward evolutionary event.

Does Computer Science Need Computers?

The theoretical side of the field doesn’t require computing machines. But many questions would never have been posed without them.

A New Framework for How the Brain Compresses Our Noisy World

An updated view of categorization reflects the modern understanding that the nervous system is more of a prediction engine than a filing cabinet.

‘Huge Breakthrough’ in the Math of Imbalance

For the first time in 30 years, computer scientists have found a better way to allocate objects evenly between two groups.

Building a Quantum Computer, One Fragile Qubit at a Time

No one yet knows which technology will power the quantum computers of the future, but the race to create them has already produced some of science’s most intricate machinery.

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The 17-Year-Old Student Who Solved a Major Math Mystery

Emily Buder/Quanta Magazine

Special Features

The Joy of Why


00:00 / 53:15

In this special live recording from the International Congress of Mathematicians in Philadelphia, July 2026, the central question discussed was what do mathematicians really value about doing mathematics in the first place?

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How Can Infinity Come in Many Sizes?

Intuition breaks down once we’re dealing with the endless. To begin with: Some infinities are bigger than others.

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