How Mutant Viral Swarms Spread Disease
Viruses exist as “mutant clouds” of closely related individuals, an insight that is helping researchers predict where disease is likely to spread
Stories by Quanta Magazine
A Surprise Source of Life's Code
Emerging data suggests the seemingly impossible—that mysterious new genes arise from “junk” DNA
Giant Burst of Tiny Organisms Discovered on Tree of Life
A new technique for finding and characterizing microbes has boosted the number of known bacteria by almost 50 percent, revealing a hidden world all around us.
Decoding the Remarkable Algorithms of Ants
The biologist Deborah Gordon has uncovered how ant colonies search efficiently without central organization, an insight that might improve computer networks
World of Hidden Life Teems below Our Feet
Researchers have begun to catalogue how soil microbes are changing the world
How Dinosaurs Shrank and Became Birds
Modern birds appeared to emerge in a snap of evolutionary time. But new research illuminates the long series of evolutionary changes that made the transformation possible
Roots of Animals' Individuality Revealed with "Groundhog Day" Experiments
Animals raised under the same conditions are creating a biological map of what makes individuals unique
How Structure Arose in the Primordial Soup
Researchers are resurrecting ancient proteins to illuminate Earth’s biological dark ages
Science's Path from Myth to Multiverse
In his latest book Nobel Prize winner Steven Weinberg explores how science made the modern world, and where it might take us from here
Dark Energy Tested on a Tabletop
Is dark energy a cosmic chameleon that can fade into its surroundings? A recent test brings the mysterious antigravitational force down-to-earth
Analog Simulators Could Be Shortcut to Universal Quantum Computers
Quantum computing pioneer Ivan H. Deutsch explains why analog quantum simulators may beat out general-purpose digital quantum machines for now
Mathematicians Chase Moonshine’s Shadow
Researchers are on the trail of a mysterious connection between number theory, algebra and string theory
America's Last Major Particle Collider Awakens
The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, which operates at a lower energy than the Large Hadron Collider in Europe, recently fired up for its 15th run to look at quarks and gluons
Human Genome's Spirals, Loops and Globules Come into 4-D View [Video]
A quest to unravel the architecture of the double helix is revealing the subtle genetic orchestration of life
Game Theory Calls Cooperation into Question
A recent solution to the "prisoner's dilemma," a classic game theory scenario, has created new puzzles in evolutionary biology
Newly Discovered Networks among Different Diseases Reveal Hidden Connections
Enormous databases of medical records have begun to reveal connections among diseases that could provide insights into the biological missteps that make us sick
New Twist in Life’s Start Could Aid Efforts to Make It from Scratch
All life on Earth is made of molecules that twist in the same direction. New research reveals that this may not always have been so
Mental Leaps Cued by Memory’s Ripples
The same mental processes that organize memories may also coordinate how we make decisions
Lizard Stowaways Revise Principle of Ecology
The movement of lizards around the Caribbean is forcing an accounting for human activity in even the most basic ecological models
Garbled DNA Might Be Good for You
Our bodies are a genetic patchwork, possessing variation from cell to cell. Is that a good thing?
