Explainers
Space-Time: The Biggest Problem in Physics
What is the deepest level of reality? In this Quanta explainer, Vijay Balasubramanian, a physicist at the University of Pennsylvania, takes us on a journey through space-time to investigate what it’s made of, why it’s failing us, and where physics can go next.
Read related article
Select Playlist
Explore All Videos
Gabriela González: Searching the Sky for the Wobbles of Gravity
Gabriela González explains how to measure black-hole collisions using gravitational waves.
What Is a Species?
David Kaplan explains why a simple definition of “species” is hard to come by.
Nima Arkani-Hamed’s Visions of Future Physics
Nima Arkani-Hamed makes his “big-picture” case for building a 100-TeV particle collider.
Nancy Moran: An Explorer of Life’s Deepest Partnerships
Nancy Moran explains how colony collapse disorder led her to study the bacteria that live in the guts of bees.
James Bullock: The Case for Complex Dark Matter
James Bullock explains why dark matter might be more complicated than astronomers have assumed.
How Does Symmetry Shape Nature’s Laws?
David Kaplan explains how the search for hidden symmetries leads to discoveries like the Higgs boson.
How Did Life Begin on Earth?
David Kaplan explores the leading theories for the origin of life on our planet.
Where Did the Universe Come From?
David Kaplan explores the leading cosmological explanation for the origin of the universe.
What Happens if You Fall Into a Black Hole?
David Kaplan explores one of the biggest mysteries in physics: the apparent contradiction between general relativity and quantum mechanics.