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A Prodigy Who Cracked Open the Cosmos
Frank Wilczek has been at the forefront of theoretical physics for the past 50 years. He talks about winning the Nobel Prize for work he did as a student, his solution to the dark matter problem, and the God of a scientist.
Galaxy-Size Bubbles Discovered Towering Over the Milky Way
For decades, astronomers debated whether a particular smudge was close-by and small, or distant and huge. A new X-ray map supports the massive option.
New Quantum Algorithms Finally Crack Nonlinear Equations
Two teams found different ways for quantum computers to process nonlinear systems by first disguising them as linear ones.
Our Favorite Comments of the Year
Online comment platforms can bring out the best — and the worst — in people. At the end of a tumultuous year, Quanta’s editors highlight some of our favorite things you had to say.
The Year in Physics
Featuring paradoxical black holes, room-temperature superconductors and a new escape from the prison of time.
How Claude Shannon Invented the Future
Today’s information age is only possible thanks to the groundbreaking work of a lone genius.
Astronomers Get Their Wish, and a Cosmic Crisis Gets Worse
We don’t know why the universe appears to be expanding faster than it should. New ultra-precise distance measurements have only intensified the problem.
A Mathematician’s Unanticipated Journey Through the Physical World
Lauren Williams has charted an adventurous mathematical career out of the pieces of a fundamental object called the positive Grassmannian.
The New History of the Milky Way
Over the past two years, astronomers have rewritten the story of our galaxy.