Policy
Classical Computing Embraces Quantum Ideas
"Thinking quantumly" can lead to new insights into long-standing problems in classical computer science, mathematics and cryptography, regardless of whether quantum computers ever materialize...
Stories by Quanta Magazine
The Sciences
Getting into Shapes: From Hyperbolic Geometry to Cube Complexes
A proof announced in March resolved the last of 23 questions about 3-D shapes posed in 1982 by mathematician William Thurston, marking the end of an era in the study of "three-manifolds"...
Space & Physics
Black Hole Firewalls Confound Theoretical Physicists
If a new hypothesis about black hole firewalls proves correct, at least one of three cherished notions in theoretical physics must be wrong.
Space & Physics
The Hoyle State: A Primordial Nucleus behind the Elements of Life
Using supercomputers and new mathematical techniques, physicists are working to reveal how the Hoyle state atomic nucleus gives rise to the light elements that enable life, and how it drives the evolution of stars...
Space & Physics
Supersymmetry Fails Test, Forcing Physics to Seek New Ideas
With the Large Hadron Collider unable to find the particles that the theory says must exist, the field of particle physics is back to its "nightmare scenario"
