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Searching for Dark Matter with a Tabletop ‘Quantum Compass’

The physicist Alex Sushkov has developed one of the most targeted magnetic resonance experiments to date with the aim of detecting a hypothetical dark matter particle called the axion.


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How a New X-Ray Technique Sees Black Holes

February 12, 2024

Astrophysicist Erin Kara explores black holes by carefully tracking the gas and plasma swirling near their event horizons.

Decoding Math’s Most Famous Fractal

January 27, 2024

Mathematicians working in the field of complex dynamical systems are patiently unraveling the Mandelbrot set’s mysteries and may be on the verge of solving a fundamental conjecture that would allow them to describe the set completely.

The Math Hiding in Plain Sight

January 12, 2024

Sarah Hart, the professor of geometry at Gresham College, sees symmetry everywhere.

2023’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Math

December 22, 2023

In 2023, mathematicians improved bounds on Ramsey numbers, a central measure of order in graphs; found a new aperiodic monotile; and discovered a new upper bound to the size of sets without 3-term arithmetic progressions.

2023’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Physics

December 21, 2023

In 2023, physicists found the gravitational wave background that’s made by supermassive black hole collisions, teleported quantum energy in the lab, and puzzled over JWST’s potentially cosmology-breaking discoveries.

2023’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Computer Science

December 20, 2023

In 2023, computer scientists made progress on a new vector-driven approach to AI, fundamentally improved Shor’s algorithm for factoring large numbers, and examined the surprising and powerful behaviors that can emerge from large language models.

2023’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Biology and Neuroscience

December 19, 2023

During 2023, Quanta turned a spotlight on important research progress into the nature of consciousness, the origins of our microbiomes and the timekeeping mechanisms that govern our lives and development, among many other discoveries.

P vs. NP – The Greatest Unsolved Problem in Computer Science

December 1, 2023

Is it possible to invent a computer that computes anything in a flash? Or could some problems stump even the most powerful of computers? Computational complexity theorists study these questions and others in the hopes of determining the limits of a computer’s powers.

How AI Learns to ‘See’

October 24, 2023

Alexei Efros describes how he combines massive online data sets with machine learning algorithms to understand, model and re-create the visual world.