Even empty space bubbles with energy, according to quantum mechanics — and that fact affects almost every facet of physical reality. The theoretical physicist Isabel Garcia Garcia explains to Steven Strogatz why it’s so important in modern physics to understand what a true vacuum is.

The reshuffling of neurons during fruit fly metamorphosis suggests that larval memories don’t persist in adults.

By measuring the universe’s emptiest spaces, scientists can study how matter clumps together and how fast it flies apart.

The proof establishes new conditions that cause connected oscillators to sway in sync.

Knowing a little about the local connections on flight maps and other networks can reveal a lot about a system’s global structure.

Quantum algorithms can find their way out of mazes exponentially faster than classical ones, at the cost of forgetting the path they took. A new result suggests that the trade-off may be inevitable.

A new result shows how much of the plane can be colored by points that are never exactly one unit apart.

By treating Earth as a topological insulator — a state of quantum matter — physicists found a powerful explanation for the movements of the planet’s air and seas.

In some deep subterranean aquifers, cells have a chemical trick for making oxygen that could sustain whole underground ecosystems.