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A Video Tour of the Standard Model

July 16, 2021

The Standard Model is a sweeping equation that has correctly predicted the results of virtually every experiment ever conducted, as Quanta explores in a new video.

Brighter Than a Billion Billion Suns: Gamma-Ray Bursts Continue to Surprise

June 30, 2021

These ultrabright flashes have recently been tracked for days, upending ideas about the cataclysms that create them.

Nathan Seiberg on How Math Might Complete the Ultimate Physics Theory

June 24, 2021

Even in an incomplete state, quantum field theory is the most successful physical theory ever discovered. Nathan Seiberg, one of its leading architects, talks about the gaps in QFT and how mathematicians could fill them.

Gas Giants’ Energy Crisis Solved After 50 Years

June 22, 2021

Jupiter and Saturn should be freezing cold. Instead, they’re hot. Researchers now know why.

Mathematicians Prove 2D Version of Quantum Gravity Really Works

June 17, 2021

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.

Q&A

The Materials Scientist Who Studies the Innards of Exoplanets

June 15, 2021

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

Graphene Superconductors May Be Less Exotic Than Physicists Hoped

June 14, 2021

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

The Mystery at the Heart of Physics That Only Math Can Solve

June 10, 2021

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

What Makes Quantum Computing So Hard to Explain?

June 8, 2021

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

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