For decades, mathematicians have struggled to understand matrices that reflect both order and randomness, like those that model semiconductors. A new method could change that.

The story New Physics-Inspired Proof Probes the Borders of Disorder first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

At the center of little holes in cell nuclei is a mystery. Here, clumps of proteins wiggle disordered tails around like seaweed. They drive a molecular machine that moves countless molecules in and out of the nucleus efficiently, with little room for error. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with biology writer Yasemin Saplakoglu about how new high-def microscopy is revealing the intricacies of these nuclear pore complexes like never before. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

We tend to think of math as all about logic and rigor. But what ?rigor? actually means has been shaken up quite a few times over the past few centuries. The newest attempt to formalize math comes in the form of the computer program Lean. Mathematicians have mixed feelings. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with math editor Jordana Cepelewicz about how mathematicians today are navigating the tricky balancing act between creativity and formalization. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Artificial intelligence software is designing novel experimental protocols that improve upon the work of human physicists, although the humans are still ?doing a lot of baby-sitting.?

The story AI Comes Up With Bizarre Physics Experiments. But They Work. first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

Humanoid robots can run, crawl, and sort objects in flashy demos. So why can?t they reliably climb stairs or open doors? On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with contributing writer John Pavlus on why robots still struggle with the messy physics of the real world. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

In this video, Atlas walks, runs and crawls using reinforcement learning. This work was done as part of a research partnership between Boston Dynamics and the Robots and AI (RAI) Institute:

https://youtu.be/I44_zbEwz_w?si=KuKC34o_PiKs8zJP

To better understand our cosmos, some astronomers and astrophysicists go old school. Preserved beautifully on a hundred years of glass plate photographs are images of our night sky and its ever changing variations. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with writer Liz Kruesi about how these antique plates are updating our modern understanding of the universe. 

This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Audio coda by Diana Chester. This project by Diana Chester was made possible through a Powerhouse Research Fellowship at the Museum of Arts and Applied Sciences in Sydney, Australia, a collaboration with Dr. Anna Raupach, and with the support of the Sydney Observatory and the New South Wales archives.

Image generators are designed to mimic their training data, so where does their apparent creativity come from? A recent study suggests that it?s an inevitable by-product of their architecture.

The story Researchers Uncover Hidden Ingredients Behind AI Creativity first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

We tend to think of neurons as the sole engine of our thoughts, emotions, and everything in between.  For decades, a group of large brain cells called astrocytes have been thought of as mere packing peanuts for the brain. But new research suggests otherwise. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with writer Ingrid Wickelgren about these big cells? big responsibilities, which include controlling brain states like hopelessness, sleep, and hunger. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Audio Coda by NASA.

In 1874, Georg Cantor published one of the most important papers in math?s 4,000-year history. Some ideas in it were stolen. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, the second of a two-parter, host Samir Patel speaks with math editor Jordana Cepelewicz about the fate of Cantor, the myths surrounding math history, and one man's search for the truth. These episodes are based on a recent Quanta story. Explore our new special series, ?The Evolving Foundations of Math,? on our website.

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Audio coda courtesy of TheAlpineSisters Alphorn Players.

By simulating ecological networks with microbes, researchers revealed properties that may make natural communities susceptible to invasion.

The story The Ecosystem Dynamics That Can Make or Break an Invasion first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

In 1874, Georg Cantor published one of the most important papers in math?s 4,000-year history. Some ideas in it were stolen. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, the first of a two-parter, host Samir Patel speaks with math editor Jordana Cepelewicz about the hard-fought journey to embed the concept of infinity into math?s foundations. The real story is a lot more complicated than the one remembered in math history. These episodes are based on a recent story; stay tuned for the conclusion next week. Explore our new special series, ?The Evolving Foundations of Math,? on our website.   

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Parallel universes, mysterious collapses, divided worlds. These are among the interpretations of quantum theory?s relationship with reality. It?s no wonder that everyone still has questions. But a century after quantum theory emerged, some of its old mysteries may be finally dissolving. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel and contributing writer Philip Ball check in on the age-old question: What ?? reality? This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Audio coda courtesy of the Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo.

By mathematically proving how individual molecules create the complex motion of fluids, three mathematicians have illuminated why time can?t flow in reverse.

The story Epic Effort to Ground Physics in Math Opens Up the Secrets of Time first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

What guides a bat?s internal compass? It?s not the stars in the sky, or the Earth?s magnetic field. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with staff writer Yasemin Saplakoglu about how new research into animals? sense of direction could help explain the feeling of getting ?turned around,? or even why some of us are so bad at finding our way. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Audio Coda from Prat, Y., Taub, M. & Yovel, Y.
Everyday bat vocalizations contain information about emitter, addressee, context, and behavior.
Sci Rep 6, 39419 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep39419

In reality, water doesn?t glitch out. It can?t instantly change direction or spurt randomly into the sky. But on a purely mathematical level, such things are possible. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with staff writer Charlie Wood about the equations that describe our rivers, whirlpools, and breezes ? and the ?unstable blowups? that mathematicians are probing them for. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Every elementary particle falls into one of two categories. Collectivist bosons account for the forces that move us while individualist fermions keep our atoms from collapsing.

The story Matter vs. Force: Why There Are Exactly Two Types of Particles first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

In the allegory of Plato?s cave, prisoners see the world only through shadows. Extending this metaphor to AI, AI models are the prisoners and the shadows are streams of data. Are all models converging on a singular representation of reality? On this week?s episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with staff writer Ben Brubaker about how, despite being trained on entirely different data types, different models can somehow develop similar internal representations. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Audio coda: The Cave: A Parable Told By Orson Welles, Produced by Counterpoint Films, directed by Sam Weiss, and illustrated by Dick Oden. https://www.acmi.net.au/works/65888--the-cave-a-parable-told-by-orson-welles/

Particle physics hasn't yet found the new physics needed to resolve its deepest mysteries. It?s hard to know what to think about or look for. But the most devoted particle physicists are thinking and looking all the same. On this episode, host Samir Patel and columnist Natalie Wolchover discuss the first of our new series of curiosity-driven essays, Qualia, where Natalie asks particle physicists whether the field is facing a profound crisis. 

This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine. Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Audio Coda provided by UCL High Energy Physics.

Reversible programs run backward as easily as they run forward, saving energy in theory. After decades of research, they may soon power AI.

The story How Can AI Researchers Save Energy? By Going Backward first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

We already know that what we eat, drink, and inhale can affect which parts of our DNA are expressed, and which aren?t. But recent research poses a shocking idea: A dad?s habits may be encoded in molecules and transmitted to his future kids. On this episode, host Samir Patel and biology editor Hannah Waters dig into the new epigenetic mouse studies exploring whether sperm cells carry more than just genetic information. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Audio coda in this episode: Motivation and reward in learning - Produced by the Institute of Human Relations at Yale University, Published by Penn State University, Psychological Cinema Register [1948].

Imagine you?re holding two equal-size dice. Is it possible to bore a tunnel through one die that?s big enough for the other to slide through? It is ? but what about other shapes? In a paper posted online in August, two researchers describe a shape with 90 vertices and 152 faces that they?ve named the Noperthedron, the first convex polyhedron that definitely cannot pass through itself. 

In this episode, Quanta contributor Erica Klarriech tells host Samir Patel about how the researchers discovered the shape, and how it solves a centuries-old geometric mystery. 

Audio coda courtesy of the Gemsmen Renaissance Consort.

Studies of neural metabolism reveal our brain?s effort to keep us alive and the evolutionary constraints that sculpted our most complex organ.

The story How Much Energy Does It Take To Think? first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

Ask ChatGPT how to build a bomb, and it will flatly respond that it ?can?t help with that.? But users have long played a cat-and-mouse game to try to trick language models into providing forbidden information. Just as quickly as these ?jailbreaks? appear, AI companies patch them by simply filtering out forbidden prompts before they ever reach the model itself.

Recently, cryptographers have shown how the defensive filters put around powerful language models can be subverted by well-studied cryptographic tools. In fact, they?ve shown how the very nature of this two-tier system ? a filter that protects a powerful language model inside it ? creates gaps in the defenses that can always be exploited. In this episode, Quanta executive editor Michael Moyer tells Samir Patel about the findings and implications of this new work.

Audio coda courtesy of Banana Breakdown.

(This episode was first published in June 2025.)

Changes in the number, shape, efficiency and interconnectedness of organelles in the cells of flight muscles provide extra energy for birds? continent-spanning feats.

This is the fifth episode of The Quanta Podcast. In each episode, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the minds behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

(This episode was first published in July 2025.) 

Where does gravity come from? In both general relativity and quantum mechanics, this question is a big problem. One controversial theory proposes that the force arises from the universe's tendency toward disorder, or entropy. In this episode, host Samir Patel speaks with contributing writer George Musser about the long-shot idea called "entropic gravity," which Musser covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the minds behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Audio coda provided by Cosmic Perspective.

By extending the scope of the key insight behind Fermat?s Last Theorem, four mathematicians have made great strides toward building a ?grand unified theory? of math.

The story The Core of Fermat?s Last Theorem Just Got Superpowered first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

We all know that hot coffee cools down. But quantum mechanics can enable heat to flow the ?wrong? way, making hot objects hotter and cold objects colder. Now physicists think this might have an ingenious use. On this week?s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with writer Philip Ball about how a new "quantum demon? may allow information to be processed in ways that classical physics does not permit. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Audio coda by Forma, courtesy of Kranky. 

In math and science, knots do far more than keep shoes on feet. For more than a century, mathematicians have studied the properties of different knots and been rewarded by a wide range of useful applications across science. Classifying how some knots are different from others is an important part of this work. 

Earlier this year, two mathematicians found that a theory for how to differentiate between knots is false. In fact, they found infinitely many counterexamples that prove that this method for studying knots does not work the way it?s supposed to. In this episode, contributing writer Leila Sloman joins editor in chief Samir Patel to tell the story of how the unknotting number came unraveled.

Audio coda courtesy of Zinadelphia.

When pigeons outnumber pigeonholes, some birds must double up. This obvious statement ? and its inverse ? have deep connections to many areas of math and computer science.

The story How a Problem About Pigeons Powers Complexity Theory first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

Every summer since 1983, scientists at Crater Lake National Park have gathered data about the lake?s famous clarity. This past summer, Quanta contributing writer Rachel Nuwer journeyed with them as they conducted their annual tests. On this week?s episode, Nuwer and host Samir Patel discuss what gives the lake its vivid blue color, and what its data can tell us about the way water moves through a deep temperate lake.

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Audio coda recorded at Crater Lake National Park in July 2010 by the National Park Service Natural Sounds Program.

How do sellers decide how to price their goods? Competition should keep prices down, while collusion can rig higher prices (and break the law). On this week?s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with staff writer Ben Brubaker about how computer scientists are using game theory to see how algorithms might result in high prices without shady backroom deals. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Tom 7's YouTube channel

Audio coda from FDR Presidential Library & Museum.

At first glance, studying the math of waves seems like it should be smooth sailing. But the equations that describe even the gentlest rolling waves are a mathematical nightmare to solve. On this week?s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with math staff writer Joseph Howlett why waves are so elusive, even in a simplified world of equations. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Audio coda is "The Merry Golden Tree" by Shovel Dance Collective.

Salvador Dalí, Thomas Edison and Edgar Allan Poe all took inspiration from the state between sleep and waking life. On this week?s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with biology staff writer Yasemin Saplakoglu about how brain systems dictate the strange transitions into and out of sleep. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Audio coda: Copyright in The Mike Wallace Interview with Salvador Dalí is owned by the University of Michigan Board of Regents and managed by Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. The Harry Ransom Center (HRC) at the University of Texas, Austin University Libraries, is the owner of the physical kinescope.

A powerful mathematical technique is used to model melting ice and other phenomena. But it has long been imperiled by certain ?nightmare scenarios.? A new proof has removed that obstacle.

The story A New Proof Smooths Out the Math of Melting first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

Recently, astrophysicists identified something peculiar: An enormous ?naked? black hole with no galaxy in sight. On this week?s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with physics staff writer Charlie Wood about how the strange little red dot is upending our assumptions of the first billion years of cosmic history. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Audio coda courtesy of Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab.

Thanks to a delicate interplay between plate tectonics and life, Earth?s thermostat has kept animal life thriving on our planet for half a billion years. On this week?s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with contributing writer Peter Brannen about our planetary highs and lows, and the precarious goldilocks zone our animal-filled finds itself in now. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Audio coda courtesy of Martin Rietze's YouTube channel.

A new proposal makes the case that paraparticles ? a new category of quantum particle ? could be created in exotic materials.

The story ?Paraparticles? Would Be a Third Kingdom of Quantum Particle first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

Imagine a set of simple building blocks that can self-assemble into any shape you want. The possibilities for such a technology could be boundless. Inspired by nature, ?complexity engineering? seeks to design such blocks, building on a classic computer simulation. On this week?s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with contributing writer George Musser about recent developments in so-called cellular automata. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Audio coda courtesy of the Simons Foundation. 

Around 6,000 years ago, the Sahara was a lush grassland. Then, as if a switch flipped, it began to dry out, becoming the desert that we know today. Tipping points are moments in Earth?s history where gradual change suddenly becomes rapid and forms a new equilibrium.

They?re one of the most alarming threats of our planet?s near future ? and one of the most uncertain.

When will a tipping point occur? Mathematicians are attempting to turn vague, apocalyptic visions into something that we can actually prepare for and deal with. On this week?s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with contributing writer Gregory Barber about what tipping points can ? and cannot ? tell us about the future of our planet. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Audio coda courtesy of Gresham College. 

It?s been difficult to find important questions that quantum computers can answer faster than classical machines, but a new algorithm appears to do it for some critical optimization tasks.

The story Quantum Speedup Found for Huge Class of Hard Problems first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

?Memory? means many things to many people, and in many fields. We tend to understand memory to be a phenomenon that happens primarily in the brain, but in recent years, researchers have understood memory as a physical phenomenon that can occur in plenty of systems. On this episode, contributing writer Claire L. Evans tells host Samir Patel about how neuroscientists are probing the memory of individual cells.

Audio coda courtesy of YACHT.

The climate is changing. So is the way we understand the climate. On this week's episode, contributing writer Zack Savitsky joins host Samir Patel to discuss his recent reporting on the rich history and uncertain future of climate modeling, the field of science that blends math, physics, and earth science to predict the behavior of our planet's complex climate system.

Audio coda courtesy of Princeton University

Rare and powerful compounds, known as keystone molecules, can build a web of invisible interactions among species.

The story A New, Chemical View of Ecosystems first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

In order to trust machines with important jobs, we need a high level of confidence that they share our values and goals. Recent work shows that this ?alignment? can be brittle, superficial, even unstable. In one study, a few training adjustments led a popular chatbot to recommend murder. On this episode, contributing writer Stephen Ornes tells host Samir Patel about what this research reveals.

Audio coda from The National Archives and Records Administration.

For most of us, the word ?climate? immediately generates thoughts of melting ice, rising seas, wildfires and gathering storms. However, in the course of working to understand this pressing challenge, scientists have revealed so much more: A fundamental understanding of how Earth?s climate works. 

Quanta recently published a nine-story series that investigates this basic science. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, senior editor Hannah Waters joins editor in chief Samir Patel to discuss how humans have come to understand our planet.

Crying Glacier Audio Coda by Ludwig Berger, Lutz Stautner and Philipp Becker

The deceptively simple Kakeya conjecture has bedeviled mathematicians for 50 years. A new proof of the conjecture in three dimensions illuminates a whole crop of related problems.

The story ?Once in a Century? Proof Settles Math?s Kakeya Conjecture first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

In the field of harmonic analysis, there?s a constellation of questions about how the energy of a wave concentrates.

Earlier this year, a 17-year-old high school student named Hannah Cairo solved a 40-year-old mystery about how some of these waves behave, surprising and exciting mathematicians. Cairo has not yet obtained a high school or undergraduate degree, but she recently began a doctoral program at the University of Maryland to continue her already impressive career studying mathematics. In this week's episode, math editor Jordana Cepelewicz joins host Samir Patel to discuss the significance of Cairo's proof.

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

In science textbooks, Earth looks like a round layer cake. There's a hard line between the liquid metal core and the putty-like rock mantle. But maybe that boundary is a little fuzzier than we previously thought. Strange, continent sized blobs rest on the dividing line. These blobs are leaching material from the Earth?s core, extending arms out into the mantle, and sending core material up and out through magmatic plumes. 

No one's completely sure how it?s happening. On this week?s episode, host Samir Patel and writer Robin George Andrews dig into the ancient isotopic signatures that are helping us better understand the material bubbling up from the depths of our planet. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Audio coda courtesy of wildlife photographers Gudmann & Gyda

Astronomers are ready to search for the fingerprints of life in faraway planetary atmospheres. But first, they need to know where to look ? and that means figuring out which planets are likely to have atmospheres in the first place.

The story How Undergraduate The Road Map to Alien Life Passes Through the ?Cosmic Shoreline? first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

We?re living in the golden age of cryptography. Since the 1970s, we've had more confidence in encryption than ever before. But there's a difference between confidence and absolute certainty. And computer scientists care a lot about that difference.

The search is always on for better, more secure secrets. But is it possible for digital security to be truly, provably unbreakable? Maybe, with a little help from math and physics. On this week?s episode, host Samir Patel talks with ?????? computer science staff writer Ben Brubaker about a developing frontier of digital security: quantum cryptography. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Audio Coda from the Bletchley Park Trust.