Illuminating math and science. Supported by @SimonsFdn. 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting.
Joined October 2012
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This is the Weierstrass function, a “monster” that is continuous everywhere but differentiable nowhere. First published in 1872, it prompted scrutiny of assumptions in calculus. Similar functions are used to study random motion and analyze risk. quantamagazine.org/the-jagge…
New analysis reveals that development is not a mere readout of a genetic program, but rather a dynamic process in which communities of cells build themselves, and the very landscape they navigate, by mutual negotiation and interaction, into an organism.
quantamagazine.org/how-does-…
The annual Nikon Small World contest has charted not only the evolution of creative photomicrography but also the progress of imaging technology. Here are our favorite winners and honorable mentions that reveal the intricacies of the cellular world: quantamagazine.org/see-insid…
New on Transformation: In Caltech ‘Mathathon’ saga, AI early adopters and critics find common ground @kkakaes reports: quantamagazine.org/updates/t…
The Riemann hypothesis has been an open problem for over 160 years. Resolving it would enable mathematicians to better understand the nature of prime numbers, one of math’s most crucial building blocks. And that’s just for starters.
AI just made a major advance toward an answer: quantamagazine.org/ai-proved…
One day, Edward Nelson woke up and realized that infinity might not be real. It left him in an existential crisis. He was, he said, “like an infant in my crib reduced to counting on my fingers.” quantamagazine.org/what-can-…
Three galaxies, about 65 million light-years from Earth, don’t look quite right. They’re ghostly objects dimly illuminated by a smattering of stars. That isn’t the strangest thing about them: they also have little dark matter. Hear more on The Quanta Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
The Nikon Small World competition, established in 1974, honors excellence in microscopy. Here are some of our favorite winning images: quantamagazine.org/see-insid…
Benchmarks are used to assess the capabilities of LLMs like GPT-6 Astra or Claude Fable. They can test how well the models solve difficult math problems or find security bugs in software. But computer scientist Moritz Hardt is not convinced that they are working as they should be.
quantamagazine.org/he-wants-…
OpenAI’s new proof of the quasi-Riemann hypothesis is, as Jared Duker Lichtman of Stanford University put it, “the most significant AI-for-math achievement so far, by quite a margin.”
quantamagazine.org/ai-proved…
Mathematical notation is more than just a tool. David E. Dunning thinks it’s a social, world-building technology. quantamagazine.org/how-writi…
Almost all galaxies are dominated by dark matter — that is, except for three ‘ghostly’ galaxies. Astronomers theorize that a powerful ancient collision aligned them into an eerie line and left them without dark matter. Get the full story on The Quanta Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
Lisa Sauermann and an old friend recently settled a major conjecture. By chance, the problem ties back to one she solved on the International Mathematical Olympiad as a high school student. She won gold four times. quantamagazine.org/mathemati…
New post on Transformation: AI proof of the quasi-Riemann hypothesis has ‘staggering’ consequences quantamagazine.org/updates/t…
“The biggest misconception about de-extinction is that it’s possible,” evolutionary biologist Beth Shapiro told writer Yasemin Saplakoglu in 2022. Read her explainer on the plausibility of efforts to bring back extinct species, such as dire wolves and mammoths. quantamagazine.org/why-de-ex…
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The Riemann ζ function connects integers, prime numbers and complex numbers in a mysterious and powerful way. In this story, I report how analytic number theorists are coming to terms with a claimed proof of the quasi-Riemann hypothesis by OpenAI:
quantamagazine.org/ai-proved…
Among the 377 results that OpenAI announced two weeks ago, one stood out. It claimed to settle the “quasi-Riemann hypothesis” — a weaker version of the Riemann hypothesis, which is arguably the biggest open question in math. @kkakaes reports: quantamagazine.org/ai-proved…
Some scientists have suggested that dark matter may not exist. Three bizarre galaxies pour cold water on that idea.
quantamagazine.org/triplet-o…
A trick for detecting quantum entanglement is conducted at a surprisingly large scale. quantamagazine.org/a-thermom…
Attention is a mathematical operation built into AI systems that allow them to link words and build context. What can this mechanism teach us about our own linguistic ability? quantamagazine.org/is-attent…
