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Quanta Podcast

Susan Valot narrates in-depth news episodes based on Quanta Magazine's articles about mathematics, physics, biology and computer science.

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The curling bodies of two differently colored roundworms overlap with a virus-shaped element in the background.

Selfish, Virus-Like DNA Can Carry Genes Between Species

To Move Fast, Quantum Maze Solvers Must Forget the Past

Underground Cells Make ‘Dark Oxygen’ Without Light

Illustration of a brain surrounded by castle walls that keep out blood vessels.

How the Brain Protects Itself From Blood-Borne Threats

A person stares at a thought bubble.

Is It Real or Imagined? How Your Brain Tells the Difference.

Chatbots Don’t Know What Stuff Isn’t

Global Microbiome Study Gives New View of Shared Health Risks

Human figures in fetal positions float through a dim, twilit space.

How Loneliness Reshapes the Brain

A shining lightbulb with a cord that’s not plugged in.

Physicists Use Quantum Mechanics to Pull Energy out of Nothing

A stylized illustration showing half the heads and brains of a lizard and a mouse in cross-section side by side.

Gene Expression in Neurons Solves a Brain Evolution Puzzle

illustration of abstract, boxy-looking robot surrounded by household items such as a knife and a guitar, all of which have labels attached.

Machines Learn Better if We Teach Them the Basics

A graphical illustration showing a number of well-known stars in the present-day universe, along with the edge of a far bigger star.

Astronomers Say They Have Spotted the Universe’s First Stars

A sad woman stands under an umbrella that is decorated with images of brains, molecules and DNA. Rain falls on her under the umbrella but the day is otherwise clear.

The Cause of Depression Is Probably Not What You Think

An African army ant queen and worker against a white background, emphasizing the huge difference in their sizes

Ants Live 10 Times Longer by Altering Their Insulin Responses

Illustration in which a forest scene is mirrored in a person’s right eye while the left eye shows a clock.

How the Brain Distinguishes Memories From Perceptions

What Causes Alzheimer’s? Scientists Are Rethinking the Answer. (Pt. 2)