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Latest Articles

What’s Going On Inside Io, Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon?

Recent flybys of the fiery world refute a leading theory of its inner structure — and reveal how little is understood about geologically active moons.

Q&A

Improving Deep Learning With a Little Help From Physics

Rose Yu has a plan for how to make AI better, faster and smarter — and it’s already yielding results.

How a Biofilm’s Strange Shape Emerges From Cellular Geometry

Micro decisions can have macro consequences. A soft matter physicist reveals how interactions within simple cellular collectives can lead to emergent physical traits.

New Proof Settles Decades-Old Bet About Connected Networks

According to mathematical legend, Peter Sarnak and Noga Alon made a bet about optimal graphs in the late 1980s. They’ve now both been proved wrong.

Touch, Our Most Complex Sense, Is a Landscape of Cellular Sensors

Every soft caress of wind, searing burn and seismic rumble is detected by our skin’s tangle of touch sensors. David Ginty has spent his career cataloging the neurons beneath everyday sensations.

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Why Some People Don’t ‘See’ Mental Imagery: Aphantasia

Christopher W. Young/Quanta Magazine

Special Features

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The Thought Experiments That Fray the Fabric of Space-Time

These three imagined scenarios lead many physicists to doubt that space-time is fundamental.

The Joy of Why


Quantum particles swirling around
00:00 / 42:33

Quantum gravity could help physicists unite the currently incompatible worlds of quantum mechanics and gravity. In this episode, Monika Schleier-Smith discusses her pioneering experimental approach, using laser-cooled atoms to explore whether gravity could emerge from quantum entanglement.

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Illuminating basic science and math research through public service journalism.

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Quanta Magazine is committed to in-depth, accurate journalism that serves the public interest. Each article braids the complexities of science with the malleable art of storytelling and is meticulously reported, edited and fact-checked. Launched and funded by the Simons Foundation, Quanta is editorially independent — our articles do not reflect or represent the views of the foundation.

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