A New Map of All the Particles and Forces | Quanta Magazine
WEBOct 22, 2020 — We’ve created a new way to explore the fundamental constituents of the universe. 68. Ashley Mackenzie for Quanta Magazine. [Editor’s note: The full, interactive map is available below.] All of nature springs from a handful of components — the fundamental particles — that interact with one another in only a few different ways.
Physics News, Interviews and Columns | Quanta Magazine
WEBBy Ben Brubaker. August 28, 2024. While devising a new quantum algorithm, four researchers accidentally established a hard limit on entanglement. fundamental physics. By Steve Nadis. August 19, 2024. The largest-ever 3D map of the cosmos hints that the dark energy that’s fueling the universe’s expansion may be weakening.
The Mystery at the Heart of Physics That Only Math Can Solve
WEBJun 10, 2021 — The accelerating effort to understand the mathematics of quantum field theory will have profound consequences for both math and physics. Olena Shmahalo/Quanta Magazine. Over the past century, quantum field theory has proved to be the single most sweeping and successful physical theory ever invented. It is an umbrella …
Math News, Interviews and Columns From Quanta Magazine
WEBAugust 1, 2024. Cryptography is the thread that connects Julius Caesar, World War II and quantum computing, and it now lies under nearly every part of modern life. In this week’s episode, computer scientist Boaz Barak and co-host Janna Levin discuss the past and future of secrecy. Langlands program. By Erica Klarreich.
How Gödel’s Proof Works - Quanta Magazine
WEBJul 14, 2020 — So the only prime factorization of 243,000,000 is 2 6 × 3 5 × 5 6, meaning there’s only one possible way to decode the Gödel number: the formula 0 = 0. Gödel then went one step further. A mathematical proof consists of a sequence of formulas. So Gödel gave every sequence of formulas a unique Gödel number too.
What Is a Particle? - Quanta Magazine
WEBNov 12, 2020 — A Particle Is a ‘Collapsed Wave Function’ 1. The quest to understand nature’s fundamental building blocks began with the ancient Greek philosopher Democritus’s assertion that such things exist. Two millennia later, Isaac Newton and Christiaan Huygens debated whether light is made of particles or waves.
A New Physics Theory of Life - Quanta Magazine
WEBJan 22, 2014 — An MIT physicist has proposed the provocative idea that life exists because the law of increasing entropy drives matter to acquire lifelike physical properties. Jeremy England, a 31-year-old physicist at MIT, thinks he has found the underlying physics driving the origin and evolution of life. Katherine Taylor for Quanta Magazine.
Why Extraterrestrial Life May Not Seem Entirely Alien
WEBMar 18, 2021 — Arik Kershenbaum, a zoologist and animal communications researcher at the University of Cambridge, thinks that the evolutionary forces that shape life on Earth will produce many similar features in extraterrestrial life. Luke Wolagiewicz for Quanta Magazine. On the website for the department of zoology of the University of Cambridge, …
How Claude Shannon Invented the Future | Quanta Magazine
WEBDec 22, 2020 — In that sense, he was a scientist. Shannon invented new mathematics to describe the laws of communication. He introduced new ideas, like the entropy rate of a probabilistic model, which have been applied in far-ranging branches of mathematics such as ergodic theory, the study of long-term behavior of dynamical systems.
Mathematician Proves Huge Result on ‘Dangerous’ Problem
WEBDec 11, 2019 — Lothar Collatz likely posed the eponymous conjecture in the 1930s. The problem sounds like a party trick. Pick a number, any number. If it’s odd, multiply it by 3 and add 1. If it’s even, divide it by 2. Now you have a new number. Apply the same rules to the new number. The conjecture is about what happens as you keep repeating the process.