Space-Time: The Biggest Problem in Physics Quanta Magazine 2024-09-25 | 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.Explore black holes, holograms, “alien algebra,” and more space-time geometry: quantamagazine.org/the-unraveling-of-space-time-2024092500:00 - The Planck length, an intro to space-time1:23 - Descartes and Newton investigate space and time2:04 - Einstein's special relativity2:32 - The geometry of space-time and the manifold3:16 - Einstein's general relativity: space-time in four dimensions3:35 - The mathematical curvature of space-time 4:57 - Einstein's field equation6:04 - Singularities: where general relativity fails6:50 - Quantum mechanics (amplitudes, entanglement, Schrödinger equation)8:32 - The problem of quantum gravity9:38 - Applying quantum mechanics to our manifold10:36 - Why particle accelerators can't test quantum gravity11:28 - Is there something deeper than space-time?11:45 - Hawking and Bekenstein discover black holes have entropy13:54 - The holographic principle 14:49 - AdS/CFT duality16:06 - Space-time may emerge from entanglement17:44 - The path to quantum gravity--------- VISIT our website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: / quantanews - FOLLOW us Twitter: / quantamagazine Quanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org
The Mathematical Structure That Describes Our Universe Quanta Magazine 2024-10-04 | Albert Einstein discovered that our universe -- space-time -- is a manifold. Watch the full video here: youtu.be/RIqVnFtOSr4--------- VISIT our website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: / quantanews - FOLLOW us Twitter: / quantamagazine Quanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org
Is this particle the key to dark matter? Quanta Magazine 2024-09-19 | The physicist Alex Sushkov explains why the hypothetical axion particle is a good candidate for dark matter.In his lab, Sushkov uses atoms as miniature compass needles to search for dark matter. Researchers have long leveraged magnetic resonance to spy inside bodies and identify chemicals, but Sushkov has been pushing the technology to its limits. In his lab at Boston University, Sushkov has developed one of the most targeted magnetic resonance experiments to date, aiming to detect a hypothetical dark matter particle called the axion. #strongforce #physics #darkmatter #axion #spacetime #science Read the full article at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/he-seeks-mystery-magnetic-fields-with-his-quantum-compass-20240517---------- VISIT our website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: / quantanews - FOLLOW us Twitter: / quantamagazine Quanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org
Can you solve this coin toss probability puzzle? Quanta Magazine 2024-08-29 | Only about 10% of the people who recently tried this probability problem answered it correctly. What's your guess?Daniel Litt, a mathematician at the University of Toronto, delights in posing probability brainteasers like this one to his followers on 𝕏. You can find more of these problems and detailed explanations of their solutions in his interview on our website: quantamagazine.org/perplexing-the-web-one-probability-puzzle-at-a-time-20240829#math #maths #mathematics #probability #puzzle #problemsolving #mathproblem #brainteaser #mathpuzzles
What Your Brain Is Really Doing When Youre Doing Nothing Quanta Magazine 2024-08-13 | When your mind is wandering, your brain’s “default mode” network (DMN) is active. Its discovery 20 years ago inspired a raft of research into networks of brain regions and how they interact with each other. New research, including a recent study of the brain on psilocybin, is revealing the default mode networks's role in memory, social awareness and sense of self. Read the full article at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/what-your-brain-is-doing-when-youre-not-doing-anything-20240205Related Papers:- "A default mode of brain function" (Raichle et al., 2001) pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.98.2.676- "Functional connectivity in the resting brain: A network analysis of the default mode hypothesis" (Greicius et el., 2001) pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.0135058100- "20 years of the default mode network: A review and synthesis" (Menon, 2023) sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0896627323003082?via%3Dihub- "Psilocybin desynchronizes the human brain" (Siegel et al., 2024) nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07624-5---------Chapters: 00:00 What is the default mode network?00:43 Hans Berger and the discovery of the network02:36 Functional brain networks03:24 The network's role in episodic, prospective, and semantic memory04:14 Connection to self-awareness, social cognition, and theory of mind04:39 Mind wandering and self-reflection05:06 Interaction with other networks and brain dysfunction06:24 What psilocybin reveals about the network07:46 How the network creates a sense of self---------- VISIT our website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: / quantanews - FOLLOW us Twitter: / quantamagazine Quanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org
Why do we need dark matter? Quanta Magazine 2024-07-24 | The physicist Alex Sushkov explains why scientists believe dark matter must exist.In his lab, Sushkov uses atoms as miniature compass needles to search for dark matter. Researchers have long leveraged magnetic resonance to spy inside bodies and identify chemicals, but Sushkov has been pushing the technology to its limits. In his lab at Boston University, Sushkov has developed one of the most targeted magnetic resonance experiments to date, aiming to detect a hypothetical dark matter particle called the axion. #physics #darkmatter #axion #spacetime Read the full article at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/he-seeks-mystery-magnetic-fields-with-his-quantum-compass-20240517---------- VISIT our website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: / quantanews - FOLLOW us Twitter: / quantamagazine Quanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org
What Is the Nature of Consciousness? | Podcast: The Joy of Why Quanta Magazine 2024-07-03 | Neuroscience has made progress in deciphering how our brains think and perceive our surroundings, but a central feature of cognition is still deeply mysterious: namely, that many of our perceptions and thoughts are accompanied by the subjective experience of having them. Consciousness, the name we give to that experience, can’t yet be explained — but science is at least beginning to understand it. In this episode, the consciousness researcher Anil Seth and host Steven Strogatz discuss why our perceptions can be described as a “controlled hallucination,” how consciousness played into the internet sensation known as “the dress,” and how people at home can help researchers catalog the full range of ways that we experience the world.- Anil Seth's website: profiles.sussex.ac.uk/p22981-anil-seth- View "The dress" illusion for yourself: bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-31656935---------“The Joy of Why” is a Quanta Magazine podcast about curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge. The mathematician and author Steven Strogatz and the astrophysicist and author Janna Levin take turns interviewing leading researchers about the great scientific and mathematical questions of our time. - Listen to more episodes of Joy of Why: quantamagazine.org/tag/the-joy-of-why----------- VISIT our website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org
The Insane Ackermann Function Quanta Magazine 2024-06-21 | Researchers proved that navigating certain systems of vectors is among the most complex computational problems and involves a function called the Ackermann function. Find out how an easy-sounding problem yields numbers too big for our universe.Watch our full video explainer: youtube.com/watch?v=IzSs_gJDVzIRead the article: quantamagazine.org/an-easy-sounding-problem-yields-numbers-too-big-for-our-universe-20231204--------- VISIT our website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazine@QuantaScienceChannel#math #computerscience
A Shot in the Dark for Dark Matter Quanta Magazine 2024-05-31 | The physicist Alex Sushkov uses atoms as miniature compass needles to search for dark matter. Researchers have long leveraged magnetic resonance to spy inside bodies and identify chemicals, but Sushkov has been pushing the technology to its limits. In his lab at Boston University, Sushkov has developed one of the most targeted magnetic resonance experiments to date, aiming to detect a hypothetical dark matter particle called the axion. Read the full article at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/he-seeks-mystery-magnetic-fields-with-his-quantum-compass-20240517---------Chapters: 00:00 The search for dark matter01:17 What is dark matter?02:15 The hypothetical axion particle03:29 Using magnetic resonance to search for axions---------- VISIT our website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: / quantanews - FOLLOW us Twitter: / quantamagazine Quanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org
What Is Quantum Teleportation? | Podcast: The Joy of Why Quanta Magazine 2024-05-17 | Quantum teleportation isn’t just science fiction; it’s entirely real and happening in laboratories today. But teleporting quantum particles and information is a far cry from beaming people through space. In some ways, it’s even more astonishing.John Preskill, a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology, is one of the leading theoreticians of quantum computing and information. In this episode, co-host Janna Levin interviews him about entanglement, teleporting bits from coast to coast, and the revolutionary promise of quantum technology. Season 3, Episode 4- Find more information about this episode here: quantamagazine.org/what-is-quantum-teleportation-20240314----------“The Joy of Why” is a Quanta Magazine podcast about curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge. The mathematician and author Steven Strogatz and the astrophysicist and author Janna Levin take turns interviewing leading researchers about the great scientific and mathematical questions of our time. The Joy of Why is produced by PRX Productions- Listen to more episodes of Joy of Why: quantamagazine.org/tag/the-joy-of-why----------- VISIT our website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org
Why supermassive black holes shine so bright Quanta Magazine 2024-05-03 | Astrophysicist Erin Kara explores black holes by carefully tracking the gas and plasma swirling near their event horizons. To reconstruct the immediate environment, Kara turns to the X-ray light given off by the accretion disk, measuring the timing of photons using a telescope mounted on the International Space Station. This technique — called reverberation mapping — works in a manner similar to how bats ‘see’ using sound echolocation, allowing researchers to infer the structure of the gas and plasma with remarkable resolution. ----------Read the full article: quantamagazine.org/to-see-black-holes-in-detail-she-uses-echoes-like-a-bat-20240212Black hole footage courtesy of NASA and European Southern Observatory.----------- VISIT our website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazine@QuantaScienceChannel#science #blackhole #space #physics #telescope
Can Large Language Models Understand Meaning? Quanta Magazine 2024-04-29 | Brown University computer scientist Ellie Pavlick is translating philosophical concepts such as “understanding” and “meaning” into concrete ideas that are testable on LLMs.Read more at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/does-ai-know-what-an-apple-is-she-aims-to-find-out-20240425---------- VISIT our website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: / quantanews - FOLLOW us Twitter: / quantamagazine Quanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org
What Makes for ‘Good’ Math? | Podcast: The Joy of Why Quanta Magazine 2024-04-16 | Terence Tao, who has been called the “Mozart of Mathematics,” wrote an essay in 2007 about the common ingredients in “good” mathematical research. In this episode, the Fields Medalist joins Steven Strogatz to revisit the topic. S3EP01 Originally Published February 1, 2024- Find more information about this episode here: quantamagazine.org/what-makes-for-good-mathematics-20240201----------“The Joy of Why” is a Quanta Magazine podcast about curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge. The mathematician and author Steven Strogatz and the astrophysicist and author Janna Levin take turns interviewing leading researchers about the great scientific and mathematical questions of our time. The Joy of Why is produced by PRX Productions- Listen to more episodes of Joy of Why: quantamagazine.org/tag/the-joy-of-why----------- VISIT our website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org
The Longest-Running Science Experiment in History Quanta Magazine 2024-04-05 | Nearly 3,000 years ago, ancient Babylonians began one of the longest-running science experiments in history. The goal: to predict eclipses. This singular aim has driven innovation across the history of science and mathematics, from the Saros cycle to Greek geometry to Newton’s calculus to the three-body problem. Today, eclipse prediction is a precise science; NASA scientists predict eclipses hundreds of years into the future. Featuring Stephen Wolfram.----------Read the Quanta article "How the Ancient Art of Eclipse Prediction Became an Exact Science": quantamagazine.org/how-the-ancient-art-of-eclipse-prediction-became-an-exact-science-20240405----------Chapters: 00:00 Solving the three-body problem is key to predicting eclipses00:52 Importance of eclipses to ancient civilizations01:20 The lunar phase cycles, plane of ecliptic, draconic month, anomalistic month02:18 Discovery of the Saros cycle by the Babylonians03:34 The Antikythera mechanism encodes the Saros cycle04:22 Newton's discoveries lead to new calculations of the eclipse00:48 How to solve the three-body problem05:24 NASA's solution to the three-body problem, location of the Earth, moon and sun06:51 JPL Development Ephemeris07:25 Predicting future eclipses08:14 The end of the current Saros series----------- VISIT our website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org
Cryptographys Mathematical Worlds: Which One Do We Live In? Quanta Magazine 2024-03-27 | For forty years, Russell Impagliazzo has worked at the forefront of computational complexity theory, the study of the intrinsic difficulty of different problems. The most famous open question in this field, called the P versus NP problem, asks whether many seemingly hard computational problems are actually easy, with the right algorithm. An answer would have far-reaching implications for science and the security of modern cryptography. In 1995, Impagliazzo wrote a seminal paper where he reformulated possible solutions to P versus NP in the language of five hypothetical worlds we might inhabit, whimsically dubbed Algorithmica, Heuristica, Pessiland, Minicrypt and Cryptomania. Impagliazzo’s five worlds have inspired a generation of researchers, and they continue to guide research in the flourishing subfield of meta-complexityCINEMATOGRPAHY: Jesse Aragon----------Read the full article for links to papers: quantamagazine.org/the-researcher-who-explores-computation-by-conjuring-new-worlds-20240327Read the Quanta article about Impagliazzo's Five Worlds - Which Computational Universe Do We Live In?quantamagazine.org/which-computational-universe-do-we-live-in-20220418----------Chapters: 00:00 Cryptography is the killer app of Computational Complexity01:31 Impagliazzo's Five Worlds02:03 World 1 - Algorithmica02:27 World 2 - Heuristica02:53 World 3 - Pessiland03:15 World 4 - Minicrypt03:52 World 5 - Cryptomania - cryptography as we know it----------- VISIT our website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org
Why is this computer science problem so hard to solve? Quanta Magazine 2024-03-15 | Researchers use a process called formal verification to ensure critical computer programs are free of bugs. Inside this process is a math problem call the reachability problem for vector addition systems. Find out how this problem was solved by computer scientists.Watch our full video explainer: youtube.com/watch?v=IzSs_gJDVzIRead the article: quantamagazine.org/an-easy-sounding-problem-yields-numbers-too-big-for-our-universe-20231204--------- VISIT our website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazine@QuantaScienceChannel#math #computerscience #science
The Easy-Sounding Problem That Yields Numbers Too Big for Our Universe Quanta Magazine 2024-03-08 | How can a programmer ensure a critical piece of software is bug-free? Theoretical computer scientists use a fundamental question called the reachability problem, which determines whether a computer will reach or avoid various dangerous states when running a program. To better understand the complexity of the problem, researchers turned to a mathematical tool called vector addition systems. In a series of recent breakthroughs, computer scientists have now determined that the complexity of the reachability problem for vector addition systems is defined by a famous function called the Ackermann function, which becomes extremely complex even with small inputs.----------Read the full article for links to papers: quantamagazine.org/an-easy-sounding-problem-yields-numbers-too-big-for-our-universe-20231204CORRECTION: March 13, 2024Around the same time as Czerwiński and Orlikowski's 2021 paper that raised the lower bound to Leroux and Schmitz’s Ackermann upper bound, Leroux obtained an equivalent result, working independently. Both papers proved the same lower bound and the teams coordinated to publish the papers at the same time. Links to their work can be found here: - The Reachability Problem for Petri Nets is Not Primitive Recursive, Leroux ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9719763- Reachability in Vector Addition Systems is Ackermann-complete, Czerwiński and Orlikowski ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9719806----------Chapters: 00:00 How formal verification finds programming bugs00:59 The Reachability Problem01:41 Origins of concurrent computing and resultant challenges02:40 Vector addition systems (vass) and the reachability problem04:16 Searching for the complexity of the problem, what's the fastest algorithm?04:38 Identification of lower and upper bounds of the reachability problem06:18 The Ackermann function explained07:32 A final solution to the vasa reachability problem is found----------- VISIT our website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org
How to hear black holes with X-rays Quanta Magazine 2024-02-16 | Astrophysicist Erin Kara explores black holes by mapping echos of X-ray light given off by their accretion disks. To better understand what happens at the event horizon, she turned light echoes into simulated sound in order to 'hear' how they work at the most fundamental levels.----------Read the full article: quantamagazine.org/to-see-black-holes-in-detail-she-uses-echoes-like-a-bat-20240212----------Black hole footage courtesy of NASA and European Southern Observatory.- VISIT our website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazine@QuantaScienceChannel#space #blackholes #science
The Physicist Who Sees Into Black Holes Quanta Magazine 2024-02-12 | How do supermassive black holes shape the evolution of galaxies? What does an event horizon really look like? Why do black holes emit bursts of energy called ‘relativistic jets’?In search of answers to these questions, astrophysicist Erin Kara explores black holes by carefully tracking the gas and plasma swirling near their event horizons. To reconstruct the immediate environment, Kara turns to the X-ray light given off by the accretion disk, measuring the timing of photons using a telescope mounted on the International Space Station. This technique — called reverberation mapping — works in a manner similar to how bats ‘see’ using sound echolocation, allowing researchers to infer the structure of the gas and plasma with remarkable resolution. ----------Read the full article: quantamagazine.org/to-see-black-holes-in-detail-she-uses-echoes-like-a-bat-20240212----------Chapters: 00:00 How do supermassive black holes shape our galaxy?00:59 Blackholes release X-rays as matter falls in02:00 Using the NICER telescope to capture photons from black holes02:30 Reverberation mapping technique is like echolocation04:10 Imaging stellar-mass black holes04:34 Formation of relativistic jets----------- VISIT our website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org
Who Discovered the Mandelbrot Set? Quanta Magazine 2024-02-01 | The Mandelbrot set has inspired music, fiction, paintings and countless psychedelic hallucinations. Its tangled wilderness also bears witness to incredible feats of mathematical imagination.Plot the Mandelbrot set in interactive graphics and read Jordana Cepelewicz’s long read: quantamagazine.org/the-quest-to-decode-the-mandelbrot-set-maths-famed-fractal-20240126Watch our full video explainer: youtube.com/watch?v=u9GAnW8xFJY#math #fractal #science #explainervideo
What is the Mandelbrot Set? Quanta Magazine 2024-01-30 | The Mandelbrot set has inspired music, fiction, paintings and countless psychedelic hallucinations. Its tangled wilderness also bears witness to incredible feats of mathematical imagination.#math #fractalPlot the Mandelbrot set in interactive graphics and read Jordana Cepelewicz’s long read: quantamagazine.org/the-quest-to-decode-the-mandelbrot-set-maths-famed-fractal-20240126Watch our full video explainer: youtube.com/watch?v=u9GAnW8xFJY
Decoding The Mandelbrot Set: Math’s Famed Fractal Quanta Magazine 2024-01-27 | The Mandelbrot set is a special shape, with a fractal outline. Use a computer to zoom in on the set’s jagged boundary and no matter how deep you explore, you’ll always see near-copies of the original set — an infinite, dizzying cascade of self-similarity and novel features. The Mandelbrot set is a perfect example of how a simple mathematical rule can produce incredible complexity.This video covers how the Mandelbrot set is constructed by iterating a quadratic function on the complex plane. It also delves into the connections between Mandelbrot and Julia sets while explaining the mechanics of how they both work. We also retrace the history of the discovery and exploration of these important sets, including current research on solving the key Mandelbrot Locally Connected conjecture (MLC).Read the full article: quantamagazine.org/the-quest-to-decode-the-mandelbrot-set-maths-famed-fractal-20240126----------Specials thanks for their Mandelbrot Set visualizations:Maths.town youtube.com/@MathsTownMovie Vertigo youtube.com/@MovieVertigoDynamic Maths https://www.dynamicmath.xyz/mandelbrot-julia/Fractally luckgrib.com/fractally----------Recommend in-depth videos about the Mandelbrot set:- What's so special about the Mandelbrot Set? - Numberphile youtube.com/watch?v=FFftmWSzgmk- The Mandelbrot Set - Numberphile: youtube.com/watch?v=NGMRB4O922I- Beyond the Mandelbrot set, an intro to holomorphic dynamics - 3Blue1Brown: youtube.com/watch?v=LqbZpur38nw----------Chapters: 00:00 What is the Mandelbrot set?00:58 How an iterated quadratic function defines the Mandelbrot set01:30 The field of complex dynamical systems01:54 Julia sets explained04:06 The discovery of the Mandelbrot set05:03 Constructing Mandelbrot sets vs Julia sets05:53 Why mathematicians study the boundary regions06:22 Mandelbrot Locally Connected conjecture, MLC----------- VISIT our website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org
The math of music Quanta Magazine 2024-01-12 | Wherever she looks, Sarah Hart discovers hidden patterns and symmetries, mathematical connections between math, nature and the arts, which appeal to our innate appreciation of order and beauty in the universe, Hart is the first woman to be the professor of geometry at Gresham College in London, a 428-year-old position that was once also held by Roger Penrose.@QuantaScienceChannel#math - VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org#science #math #stem #music #mathematics #maths #fibonacci #goldenratio #art #mathandart
The Math Hiding in Plain Sight Quanta Magazine 2024-01-12 | Group theorist Sarah Hart explores connections between math, nature and the arts including architecture, music, design and literature. Wherever she looks, Hart discovers hidden patterns and symmetries which appeal to our innate appreciation of order and beauty in the universe. Hart is the professor of geometry at Gresham College in London, where she delivers several public lectures per year.Read the full article : quantamagazine.org/the-theorist-who-sees-math-in-art-music-and-writing-2024011200:00 Humans are detectors of hidden math00:41 Group theory, the study of symmetry01:00 Math in nature: Fibonacci sequences and the golden ratio01:49 Symmetries in design, 17 patterns of wallpapers, and crystal structures03:35 Connections between music and math- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org
Biggest Breakthroughs in Math: 2023 Quanta Magazine 2023-12-23 | Quanta Magazine’s mathematics coverage in 2023 included landmark results in Ramsey theory and a remarkably simple aperiodic tile capped a year of mathematical delight and discovery.Read about more math breakthroughs from this year at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/the-biggest-discoveries-in-math-in-2023-2023122200:05 Ramsey NumbersOne of the biggest mathematical discoveries of the past year was in graph theory where the proof of a new, tighter upper bound to Ramsey numbers. These numbers measure the size that graphs must reach before inevitably containing structures called cliques. The discovery, announced in March, was the first advance of its type since 1935. - Original story with links to research papers can be found here: quantamagazine.org/after-nearly-a-century-a-new-limit-for-patterns-in-graphs-2023050206:21 Aperiodic MonotileThe most attention-getting result of the year was the discovery of a new kind of tile that covers the plane but only in a pattern that never repeats. A two-tile combination that does this has been known since the 1970s, but the single tile, discovered by a hobbyist named David Smith and announced in March, has been a sensation. CORRECTION: In the video, the image presented as the 'turtle' tile is in fact a rotated 'spectre' tile. To see the correct version of the turtle tile, you can visit Dave Smith's webpage: hedraweb.wordpress.com/2023/03/23/its-a-shape-jim-but-not-as-we-know-it- Original story with links to research papers can be found here: quantamagazine.org/hobbyist-finds-maths-elusive-einstein-tile-20230404- Build your own aperiodic tiling patterns with Kaplan's online tool: cs.uwaterloo.ca/~csk/hat/h7h8.html14:20 Three Arithmetic ProgressionsTwo computer scientists, Zander Kelley and Raghu Meka, stunned mathematicians with news of an out-of-left-field breakthrough on an old combinatorics question: How many integers can you throw into a bucket while making sure that no three of them form an evenly spaced progression? Kelley and Meka smashed a long-standing upper bound on the number of integers smaller than some cap N that could be put in the bucket without creating such a pattern.- Original story with links to research papers can be found here: quantamagazine.org/surprise-computer-science-proof-stuns-mathematicians-20230321- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org
Biggest Breakthroughs in Physics: 2023 Quanta Magazine 2023-12-21 | 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.Read about more breakthroughs from 2023 at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/the-biggest-discoveries-in-physics-in-2023-2023122100:05 Low-Frequency Gravitational WavesWhen galaxies collide, their supermassive central black holes merge — a smashup so violent that it shakes the very fabric of space-time itself. In June, multiple international collaborations announced that they had found the resulting gravitational waves that alter the apparent rhythm of pulsars.- Original story with links to research papers can be found here: quantamagazine.org/an-enormous-gravity-hum-moves-through-the-universe-2023062804:23 Quantum Energy TeleportationA quantum energy teleportation protocol was proposed in 2008 and largely ignored. Now two independent experiments have shown that it works, effectively borrowing energy from a distant location and thus violating no sacred physical principles.- Original story with links to research papers can be found here: quantamagazine.org/physicists-use-quantum-mechanics-to-pull-energy-out-of-nothing-2023022208:46 Discoveries from the James Webb Space TelescopeThe first round of big results from observations made by the James Webb Telescope were released this year, including observations of light from galaxies that glowed some 300 million years after the Big Bang and an abundance of supermassive black holes. - Original story with links to research papers can be found here: quantamagazine.org/jwst-spots-giant-black-holes-all-over-the-early-universe-20230814- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org
Biggest Breakthroughs in Computer Science: 2023 Quanta Magazine 2023-12-20 | Quanta Magazine’s computer science coverage in 2023 included progress on new approaches to artificial intelligence, a fundamental advance on a seminal quantum computing algorithm, and emergent behavior in large language models.Read about more breakthroughs from 2023 at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/the-biggest-discoveries-in-computer-science-in-2023-2023122000:05 Vector-Driven AIAs powerful as AI has become, the artificial neural networks that underpin most modern systems share two flaws: They require tremendous resources to train and operate, and it’s too easy for them to become inscrutable black boxes. Researchers have developed a new approach called hyperdimensional computing which is more versatile, making its computations far more efficient while also giving researchers greater insight into the model’s reasoning.- Original story with links to research papers can be found here: quantamagazine.org/a-new-approach-to-computation-reimagines-artificial-intelligence-2023041304:01 Improving the Quantum StandardFor decades, Shor’s algorithm has been the paragon of the power of quantum computers. This set of instructions allows a machine that can exploit the quirks of quantum physics to break large numbers into their prime factors much faster than a regular, classical computer — potentially laying waste to much of the internet’s security systems. In August, a computer scientist developed an even faster variation of Shor’s algorithm, the first significant improvement since its invention.- Original story with links to research papers can be found here: quantamagazine.org/thirty-years-later-a-speed-boost-for-quantum-factoring-2023101707:14 The Powers of Large Language ModelsGet enough stuff together, and you might be surprised by what can happen. This year, scientists found so-called “emergent behaviors,” in large language models — AI programs trained on enormous collections of text to produce humanlike writing. After these models reach a certain size, they can suddenly do unexpected things that smaller models can’t, such as solving certain math problems. - Original story with links to research papers can be found here: quantamagazine.org/the-unpredictable-abilities-emerging-from-large-ai-models-20230316- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org
Biggest Breakthroughs in Biology and Neuroscience: 2023 Quanta Magazine 2023-12-19 | Quanta Magazine's coverage of biology in 2023, including important research progress into the nature of consciousness, the origins of our microbiomes and the timekeeping mechanisms that govern our lives and development.Read about more breakthroughs from 2023 at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/the-biggest-discoveries-in-biology-in-2023-2023121900:05 The Investigation of ConsciousnessOur minds are constantly taking in new external information while also creating their own internal imagery and narratives. How do we distinguish reality from fantasy? This year, researchers discovered that the brain has a “reality threshold” against which it constantly evaluates processed signals. - Original story with links to research papers can be found here: quantamagazine.org/is-it-real-or-imagined-how-your-brain-tells-the-difference-2023052404:30 Microbiomes Evolve With UsThis year, scientists provided clear evidence that the organisms in our microbiome —the collection of bacteria and other cells that live in our guts and elsewhere on our body — spread between people, especially those with whom we spend the most time. This raises the intriguing possibility that some illnesses that aren’t usually considered communicable might be.-- Original story with links to research papers can be found here: quantamagazine.org/global-microbiome-study-gives-new-view-of-shared-health-risks-2023031408:43 How Life Keeps TimeThe rate at which an embryo develops and the timing of when its tissues mature vary dramatically between species. What controls the ticking of this developmental clock that determines an animal’s final form? This year, a series of careful experiments suggest that mitochondria may very well serve dual roles as both the timekeeper and power source for complex cells.- Original story with links to research papers can be found here: quantamagazine.org/what-makes-life-tick-mitochondria-may-keep-time-for-cells-20230918- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org
P vs. NP: The Biggest Puzzle in Computer Science Quanta Magazine 2023-12-01 | Are there limits to what computers can do? How complex is too complex for computation? The question of how hard a problem is to solve lies at the heart of an important field of computer science called Computational Complexity. Computational complexity theorists want to know which problems are practically solvable using clever algorithms and which problems are truly difficult, maybe even virtually impossible, for computers to crack. This hardness is central to what’s called the P versus NP problem, one of the most difficult and important questions in all of math and science. This video covers a wide range of topics including: the history of computer science, how transistor-based electronic computers solve problems using Boolean logical operations and algorithms, what is a Turing Machine, the different classes of problems, circuit complexity, and the emerging field of meta-complexity, where researchers study the self-referential nature of complexity questions. Featuring computer scientist Scott Aaronson (full disclosure, he is also member of the Quanta Magazine Board). Check out his blog: https://scottaaronson.blog/Read the companion article about meta-complexity at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/complexity-theorys-50-year-journey-to-the-limits-of-knowledge-2023081700:00 Introduction to the P vs NP problem 02:16 Intro to Computational Complexity02:30 How do computers solve problems?03:02 Alan Turing and Turing Machines04:05 George Boole and Boolean Algebra05:21 Claude Shannon and the invention of transistors06:22 John Von Neumann and the invention of the Universal Electronic Computer07:05 Algorithms and their limits08:22 Discovery of different classes of computational problems08:56 Polynomial P problems explained09:56 Exponential NP Problems explained11:36 Implications if P = NP12:48 Discovery of NP Complete problems13:45 Knapsack Problem and Traveling Salesman problem14:24 Boolean Satisfiability Problem (SAT) defined15:32 Circuit Complexity Theory16:55 Natural Proofs Barrier17:36 Meta-complexity18:12 Minimum Circuit Size Problem (MCSP)- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org
Why Computer Vision Is a Hard Problem for AI Quanta Magazine 2023-10-24 | Computer scientist Alexei Efros suffers from poor eyesight, but this has hardly been a professional setback. It's helped him understand how computers can learn to see. At the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research Lab (BAIR), Efros combines massive online data sets with machine learning algorithms to understand, model and re-create the visual world. His work is used in iPhones, Adobe Photoshop, self-driving car technology, and robotics. In 2016, the Association for Computing Machinery awarded him its Prize in Computing for his work creating realistic synthetic images, calling him an “image alchemist.” In this video, Efros talks about the challenges and changing paradigms of computer vision for AI.00:00 Why vision is a hard problem1:18 History of computer vision2:01 Alexei's scientific superpower3:14 The role of large-scale data3:37 Computer vision in the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Lab4:15 The drawbacks of supervised learning 4:57 Self-supervised learning5:33 Test-time training7:08 The future of computer visionRead the companion article at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/the-computing-pioneer-helping-ai-see-20231024- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org
Unlocking the Secrets of Our Circadian Rhythms Quanta Magazine 2023-10-10 | The trailblazing chronobiologist Carrie Partch has a deep fascination with the biochemical mechanisms that living cells use to track time. Utilizing state-of-the-art nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology and crystallography, her laboratory delves into the intricate workings of pivotal clock molecules such as CLOCK, BMAL1, and the PER and CRY proteins in our cells, investigating their roles in the regulation of circadian rhythms that control the human sleep-wake cycle. Despite the challenges of an ALS diagnosis, Partch is undeterred in her quest to unravel the mysteries of how the human body synchronizes itself with the natural cycles of planet Earth.Read the full article at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/in-our-cellular-clocks-shes-found-a-lifetime-of-discoveries-2023101000:00 Biological clocks and chronobiology01:21 The history of the study of biological clocks02:30 Circadian rhythms govern more than just sleep-wake cycle03:10 How modern life negatively impacts biological clock03:50 Using Nuclear Magnetic Spectroscopy to study the proteins involved in the clock05:30 How clock proteins regulate the 24-hour body clock06:40 Fixing broken biological clocks- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org#biology #circadianrhythm #biologicalclock
How To Explore The Early Universe Quanta Magazine 2023-09-20 | Cynthia Chiang, a cosmologist, builds telescopes and takes them to some of the most remote (and rugged) places on Earth, in search of radio-quiet spots where she can detect whispers from the very early cosmos. Her experiments use faint signals from hydrogen atoms to reveal what the universe was like when the first stars were born, and to study the era of cosmic dark before that first dawn.Read the full article at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/the-experimental-cosmologist-hunting-for-the-first-sunrise-2023092000:00 Cosmologist are search to answers to these mysteries.00:38 How to look back in time using a radio telescope01:45 What is a radio telescope02:56 Traveling to rugged and remote locations in search of radio quiet zones03:03 The search for Cosmic Dawn with the PRIZM experiment 04:42 Listening for the Dark Ages and the CMB with the ALBATROS experiment- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org#physics #cosmology #space #telescope
When Computers Write Proofs, Whats the Point of Mathematicians? Quanta Magazine 2023-08-31 | Andrew Granville knows that artificial intelligence will profoundly change math. The programming language Lean already plays a role in theorem proving. That's why the University of Montreal number theorist has started talking to philosophers about the nature of mathematical proof — and how the discipline of mathematics might evolve in the age of AI.Read the full article at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/why-mathematical-proof-is-a-social-compact-20230831How Close Are Computers to Automating Mathematical Reasoning?quantamagazine.org/can-computers-be-mathematicians-20220629- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org#math #proof #computerscience
Maths Map Coloring Problem - The First Proof Solved By A Computer Quanta Magazine 2023-08-08 | Can you fill in any map with just four colors? The so-called Four-Color theorem says that you can always do so in a way that neighboring regions never share the same color. But a proof eluded mathematicians for more than a century before Wolfgang Haken and Kenneth Appel controversially used a computer to show it must be true. This breakthrough forever changed mathematics.Featuring David S. Richeson, Professor of Mathematics and the John J. & Ann Curley Faculty Chair in the Liberal Arts, Dickinson CollegeRead the full article at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/only-computers-can-solve-this-map-coloring-problem-from-the-1800s-20230329Learn more about graph theory: quantamagazine.org/tag/graph-theory00:00 What is the to the Four Color Problem01:12 Historical origins of the map coloring theorem01:49 Kempe's first proof techniques using planar graphs and unavoidable sets04:49 Heawood finds a flaw in Kempe's proof05:49 How Appel and Haken used a computer to verify their proof08:15 Applications of the proof in the study of network theory- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org#math #proof #computerscience
Improving Cryptography to Protect the Internet Quanta Magazine 2023-07-27 | Theoretical computer scientist Yael Kalai has devised breakthrough interactive proofs which have had a major impact on cryptography. These protocols can be found in use in a wide range of digital applications including smart phone communication, cloud computing, and securing the blockchain. She and her collaborators are updating their cryptographic schemes for a future in which quantum computers could threaten the security of today’s most commonly used cryptographic methods.Kalai is Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research New England and an adjunct professor at MIT. She was awarded the 2022 ACM Prize in Computing.Read the full article at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/the-cryptographer-who-ensures-we-can-trust-our-computers-2023072700:00 What is cryptography and where is it used?00:54 History of modern cryptography, securing communications01:40 Securing computations with weak devices by delegating to strong devices02:55 Interactive proofs: a method to prove computational correctness4:07 Creating SNARG certificates using Fiat-Shamir Paradigm 05:30 SNARGS on the blockchain and Etherium05:45 Quantum computers and the future of cryptography- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org#cryptography #computerscience #blockchain #quantumcomputer
A Bet Against Quantum Gravity Quanta Magazine 2023-07-10 | Is gravity quantum in nature, just like all the other particles and forces? Or is it fundamentally different? For nearly a century, physicists have attempted to define gravity using the framework of quantum mechanics. But it turns out that “quantizing” gravity leads to some thorny dead ends.To chart a path forward, the physicist Jonathan Oppenheim and his students have proposed a different idea: What if gravity simply can’t be quantized? Building on work from the 1990s, Oppenheim’s theory keeps gravity classical and then searches for a way to couple the quantum and classical realms.Such hybrid theories could solve long-standing problems in physics. But they also lead to a conclusion that many physicists may find unsettling: the universe is deeply random. To make his point, Oppenheim made a bet with two quantum gravity researchers that he’s right. Upcoming experiments could determine the winner of the bet.Read the full article at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/the-physicist-who-bets-that-gravity-cant-be-quantized-20230710- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org#quantum #blackhole #physics #gravity #spacetime
Can a New Law of Physics Explain a Black Hole Paradox? Quanta Magazine 2023-06-06 | When the theoretical physicist Leonard Susskind encountered a head-scratching paradox about black holes, he turned to an unexpected place: computer science. In nature, most self-contained systems eventually reach thermodynamic equilibrium ... but not black holes. The interior volume of a black hole appears to forever expand without limit. But why? Susskind had a suspicion that a concept called computational complexity, which underpins everything from cryptography to quantum computing to the blockchain and AI, might provide an explanation.He and his colleagues believe that the complexity of quantum entanglement continues to evolve inside a black hole long past the point of what’s called “heat death.” Now Susskind and his collaborator, Adam Brown, have used this insight to propose a new law of physics: the second law of quantum complexity, a quantum analogue of the second law of thermodynamics.Read the full article at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/in-new-paradox-black-holes-appear-to-evade-heat-death-20230606Also appearing in the video: Xie Chen of CalTech, Adam Bouland of Stanford and Umesh Vazirani of UC Berkeley.00:00 Intro to a second law of quantum complexity01:16 Entropy drives most closed systems to thermal equilibrium. Why are black holes different?03:34 History of the concept of "entropy" and "heat death"05:01 Quantum complexity and entanglement might explain black holes07:32 A turn to computational circuit complexity to describe black holes08:47 Using a block cipher and cryptography to test the theory10:16 A new law of physics is proposed11:23 Embracing a quantum universe leads to new insights12:20 When quantum complexity reaches an end...the universe begins againThumbnail / title card image designed by Olena Shmahalo - VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org#quantum #blackhole #physics #entanglement #computerscience #cryptography
The Digital Quest for Quantum Gravity Quanta Magazine 2023-05-25 | Could the key to understanding quantum gravity, one of the most sought-after theories in physics, be much more elementary than many physicists believe? Theoretical physicist Renate Loll has developed an elegant theory called Causal Dynamical Triangulations (CDT) that has produced surprising findings while simulating quantum gravity inside a computer. Her research may one day lead to new insights into how the fabric of space-time formed.00:00 Is string theory and loop quantum gravity theory wrong?01:40 What is quantum gravity and how do you develop a theory of it?02:05 Causal Dynamical Triangulations theory (CDT)03:27 Computer-simulated quantum gravity revealed a 4D universe04:28 The future of quantum gravity researchRead the full article at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/renate-loll-blends-universes-to-unlock-quantum-gravity-20230525Learn more about Quantum Field Theory: quantamagazine.org/what-is-quantum-field-theory-and-why-is-it-incomplete-20220810Read an explainer of the path integral in Quanta: quantamagazine.org/how-our-reality-may-be-a-sum-of-all-possible-realities-20230206- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org#Quantum #Gravity #physics #generalrelativity
How AI Discovered a Faster Matrix Multiplication Algorithm Quanta Magazine 2023-05-22 | Researchers at Google research lab DeepMind trained an AI system called AlphaTensor to find new, faster algorithms to tackle an age-old math problem: matrix multiplication. Advances in matrix multiplication could lead to breakthroughs in physics, engineering and computer science.AlphaTensor quickly rediscovered - and surpassed, for some cases - the reigning algorithm discovered by German mathematician Volker Strassen in 1969. However, mathematicians soon took inspiration from the results of the game-playing neural network to make advances of their own.Read the full article at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/ai-reveals-new-possibilities-in-matrix-multiplication-20221123Correction: At 2:53 in the video, the text previously read "67% less" but has been changed to "67%" for accuracy.00:00 What is matrix multiplication?01:06 The standard algorithm for multiplying matrices02:06 Strassen's faster algorithm for faster matrix multiplication methods03:55 DeepMind AlphaGo beats a human04:28 DeepMind uses AI system AlphaTensor to search for new algorithms05:18 A computer helps prove the four color theorem06:17 What is a tensor?07:16 Tensor decomposition explained08:48 AlphaTensor discovers new and faster faster matrix multiplication algorithms11:09 Mathematician Manuel Kauers improves on AlphaTensor's results- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation: simonsfoundation.org#math #AlphaTensor #matrices
Hunting For Signs of Life at the Top of the World Quanta Magazine 2023-04-17 | As the director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory, Tracie Seimon develops cutting-edge techniques for the detection of pathogens that infect wild animals. She is also pushing the boundaries of conservation biology, employing eDNA (environmental DNA) collection and analysis to search for endangered species and assess biodiversity in some of the most remote ecosystems on Earth. In 2019, her team’s work on Mount Everest revealed surprising results about the wide diversity of species, which range across the tree of life, that call this hostile, high-elevation mountain environment home.The Wildlife Conservation Society runs four zoos and the aquarium in New York City and supports conservation and research projects in more than 60 countries around the world.Read the full article at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/she-tracks-the-dna-of-elusive-species-on-everest-and-in-the-andes-2023041700:00 Why protecting biodiversity important and the role of science00:20 The Wildlife Conservation Society's Molecular Lab00:50 How Dr. Tracie Simon ending up studying amphibians in the high Andes01:39 How climate change is impacting high mountain environments02:49 Researching environmental DNA (eDNA) in wild environments03:27 Biodiversity eDNA analysis of life on Mt. Everest04:16 Surprising results from the survey of the tree of life on Everest05:45 Pushing boundaries of eDNA analysis to save the Yangtze Giant Softshell Turtle- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation simonsfoundation.org#wildlife #biology #conservation #dna
Battling Big Tech: Truth, Lies and AI Quanta Magazine 2023-03-10 | Arvind Narayanan has built a career deflating the hype around claims made by Big Tech. He took on Netflix on user privacy and is now setting his sights on the latest neural networks and generative artificial intelligence. Can AI algorithms really predict our future behavior? Should programmers decide what invasive technologies are implemented, or should the public? How do so called "objective" machine learning algorithms actually reflect the biases and prejudices of society at large?Narayanan is a professor of computer science at Princeton University, affiliated with the Center for Information Technology Policy. He studies the societal impact of digital technologies.Read the full article at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/he-protects-privacy-and-ai-fairness-with-statistics-202303100:00 Who is Dr. Arvind Narayanan?0:27 Taking on Netflix and privacy1:17 Your apps are tracking you everywhere1:58 An unexpected defender of digital privacy2:10 Do AI technologies predicting behavior actually work?3:40 Does tech amply the best and and worst of society?- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation simonsfoundation.org #artificialintelligence #technology #privacy
Could One Physics Theory Unlock the Mysteries of the Brain? Quanta Magazine 2023-01-31 | The ability of the phenomenon of criticality to explain the sudden emergence of new properties in complex systems has fascinated scientists in recent decades. When systems are balanced at their “critical point,” small changes in individual units can trigger outsized events, just as falling pebbles can start an avalanche. That abrupt shift in behavior describes the phase changes of water from ice to liquid to gas, but it’s also relevant to many other situations, from flocks of starlings on the wing to stock market crashes. In the 1990s, the physicist Per Bak and other scientists suggested that the brain might be operating near its own critical point. Ever since then, neuroscientists have been searching for evidence of fractal patterns and power laws at work in the brain’s networks of neurons. What was once a fringe theory has begun to attract more mainstream attention, with researchers now hunting for mechanisms capable of tuning brains toward criticality.Learn more about the critical brain hypothesis: quantamagazine.org/a-physical-theory-for-when-the-brain-performs-best-20230131- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation simonsfoundation.org
2022s Biggest Breakthroughs in Math Quanta Magazine 2022-12-23 | Mathematicians made major progress in 2022, solving a centuries-old geometry question called the interpolation problem, proving the best way to minimize the surface area of clusters of three, four and five bubbles, and proving a sweeping statement about how structure emerges in random sets and graphs. Read more about these and other mathematical advances at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/the-year-in-math-20221222 You can read also about the biggest breakthroughs of 2022 in physics, biology, and computer science on our magazine website: quantamagazine.org/tag/2022-in-review- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation simonsfoundation.orgCorrection: An earlier version of this video incorrectly suggested that Vogt and Larson solved the Brill-Noether theorem and has been deleted. Instead, the couple solved the interpolation problem. This video more accurately reflects what they proved. We regret the error.
How Physicists Created a Holographic Wormhole in a Quantum Computer Quanta Magazine 2022-11-30 | UPDATE: In February 2023, an independent team of physicists presented evidence that the research described in this video did not create any wormholes, holographic or otherwise. Read our coverage of these developments at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/wormhole-experiment-called-into-question-20230323-------------------------Almost a century ago, Albert Einstein realized that the equations of general relativity could produce wormholes. But it would take a number of theoretical leaps and a “crazy” team of experimentalists to build one on Google's quantum computer. Read the full article at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/physicists-create-a-wormhole-using-a-quantum-computer-20221130- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation simonsfoundation.org
The High Schooler Who Solved a Prime Number Theorem Quanta Magazine 2022-10-13 | In his senior year of high school, Daniel Larsen proved a key theorem about Carmichael numbers — strange entities that mimic the primes. “It would be a paper that any mathematician would be really proud to have written,” said one mathematician. Read more at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/teenager-solves-stubborn-riddle-about-prime-number-look-alikes-20221013- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation simonsfoundation.org
One Mans Mission to Unveil Maths Beauty Quanta Magazine 2022-09-13 | "Students haven't been taught that math is discovery," says Richard Rusczyk, founder of Art of Problem Solving. "Math is a creative discipline—you're creating castles in the sky." Rusczyk has a vision for bringing “joyous, beautiful math” — and problem-solving — to classrooms everywhere. Read more at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/richard-rusczyk-is-a-math-evangelist-who-preaches-problem-solving-20220913- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation simonsfoundation.org
How Two Physicists Unlocked the Secrets of Two Dimensions Quanta Magazine 2022-08-16 | Condensed matter physics is the most active field of contemporary physics and has yielded some of the biggest breakthroughs of the past century. But as rapidly as technology has advanced, scientists have only scratched the surface. Now for the first time, Jie Shan and Fai Mak, a married couple of physicists at Cornell University, have figured out a way to create artificial atoms in the lab, opening the door to a new era in research.Read the full article at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/husband-and-wife-physicists-unlock-the-secrets-of-2d-crystals-20220816 - VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation simonsfoundation.org
Exploring the Deep Mystery of Lifes Origins Quanta Magazine 2022-08-08 | As an evolutionary biochemist at University College London, Nick Lane explores the deep mystery of how life evolved on Earth. His hypothesis that life arose through primitive metabolic reactions in deep-sea hydrothermal vents illuminates the outsized role that energy may have played in shaping evolution. Read more at Quanta: quantamagazine.org/a-biochemists-view-of-lifes-origin-reframes-cancer-and-aging-20500804- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation simonsfoundation.org
The Biggest Project in Modern Mathematics Quanta Magazine 2022-06-01 | In a 1967 letter to the number theorist André Weil, a 30-year-old mathematician named Robert Langlands outlined striking conjectures that predicted a correspondence between two objects from completely different fields of math. The Langlands program was born. Today, it's one of the most ambitious mathematical feats ever attempted. Its symmetries imply deep, powerful and beautiful connections between the most important branches of mathematics. Many mathematicians agree that it has the potential to solve some of math's most intractable problems, in time, becoming a kind of “grand unified theory of mathematics," as the mathematician Edward Frenkel has described it. In a new video explainer, Rutgers University mathematician Alex Kontorovich takes us on a journey through the continents of mathematics to learn about the awe-inspiring symmetries at the heart of the Langlands program, including how Andrew Wiles solved Fermat's Last Theorem.Read more at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/what-is-the-langlands-program-2022053100:00 A map of the mathematical world00:25 The land of Number Theory"00:39 The continent of Harmonic Analysis01:20 A bridge: the Langlands Program01:46 Robert Langlands' conjectures link the two worlds02:40 Ramanujan Discriminant Function03:00 Modular Forms04:36 Pierre Deligne's proof of Ramanujan's conjecture04:47 Functoriality05:03 Pierre De Fermat's Last Theorem06:13 Andrew Wiles builds a bridge06:30 Elliptic curves07:07 Modular arithmetic08:56 Infinite power series09:20 Taniyama - Shimura - Weil conjecture10:40 Frey's counterexample to Frey's last theorem11:30 Wiles' proof of Fermat's Last Theorem- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation simonsfoundation.org
Finally, a Picture of the Milky Ways Supermassive Black Hole Quanta Magazine 2022-05-18 | More than three years after the release of the first-ever image of a black hole, scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) shared an image of Sagittarius A* (pronounced A-star) — the supermassive specimen sitting at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy. In this video, EHT's astronomers, astrophysicists and data scientists explain the science behind the big discovery. Read more at Quanta Magazine: quantamagazine.org/black-hole-image-reveals-sagittarius-a-20220512- VISIT our Website: quantamagazine.org - LIKE us on Facebook: facebook.com/QuantaNews- FOLLOW us Twitter: twitter.com/QuantaMagazineQuanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation simonsfoundation.org
