The Quanta Podcast

The quantum energy teleportation protocol was proposed in 2008 and largely ignored. Now two independent experiments have shown that it works. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Pulse” by Geographer.

Feelings of loneliness prompt changes in the brain that further isolate people from social contact. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Slow Burn” by Kevin MacLeod.

The neocortex of our brain is the seat of our intellect. New data suggests that mammals created it with new types of cells that they developed only after their evolutionary split from reptiles. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Pulse” by Geographer.

A wave of research improves reinforcement learning algorithms by pre-training them as if they were human. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Quasi Motion” by Kevin MacLeod.

Depression has often been blamed on low levels of serotonin in the brain. That answer is insufficient, but alternatives are coming into view and changing our understanding of the disease. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Redwood Trail” by Audionautix.

Queen ants live far longer than genetically identical workers. Researchers are learning what their longevity secrets could mean for aging in other species. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Good Times” by Patrick Patrikios.

The neural representations of a perceived image and the memory of it are almost the same. New work shows how and why they are different. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Light Gazing” by Andrew Langdon.

If plaques of amyloid protein in the brain aren’t the root cause of Alzheimer’s disease, what is? Researchers investigating alternative possibilities have faced resistance from the biomedical establishment for decades, but intriguing theories about the role of defects in protein processing and the immune system have emerged. (Part 2 of two episodes.)

After decades in the shadow of the reigning model for Alzheimer’s disease, alternative explanations are finally getting the attention they deserve. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Redwood Trail” by Audionautix.

Theory has it that “Population III” stars brought light to the cosmos. The James Webb Space Telescope may have just glimpsed them. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Light Gazing” by Andrew Langdon.

An energy-efficient chip called NeuRRAM fixes an old design flaw to run large-scale AI algorithms on smaller devices, reaching the same accuracy as wasteful digital computers. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Cast of Pods” by Doug Maxwell.

Supergenes that lock inherited traits together are widespread in nature. Recent work shows that their blend of genetic benefits and risks for species can be complex. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Chee Zee Jungle – Primal Drive” by Kevin MacLeod.

A recent gamma-ray burst known as the BOAT — “brightest of all time” — appears to have produced a high-energy particle that shouldn’t exist. For some, dark matter provides the explanation. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Pulse” by Geographer.

The positively charged particle at the heart of the atom is an object of unspeakable complexity, one that changes its appearance depending on how it is probed. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Light Gazing” by Andrew Langdon.

A new atomic-scale experiment all but settles the origin of the strong form of superconductivity seen in cuprate crystals, confirming a 35-year-old theory. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Quasi Motion” by Kevin MacLeod.

Robots can surpass the limitations on how high and far animals can jump, but their success only underscores nature’s ingenuity in making the most of what’s available. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Pixel Peeker Polka” by Kevin MacLeod.

When the brain encodes memories as positive or negative, one molecule determines which way they will go. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Retro” by Wayne Jones.

Eric Larson and Isabel Vogt have solved the interpolation problem — a centuries-old question about some of the most basic objects in geometry. Some credit goes to the chalkboard in their living room. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Good Times” by Patrick Patrikios.

The key to understanding the origin and fate of the universe may be a more complete understanding of the vacuum. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Pulse” by Geographer.

Partnerships between engineers and biologists have begun to reveal how birds evolved their superb maneuverability. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Running Out” by Patrick Patrikios.

Structural studies of the robust material called sporopollenin reveal how it made plants hardy enough to reproduce on dry land. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Redwood Trail” by Audionautix.

Protein buildups like those seen around neurons in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other brain diseases occur in all aging cells, a new study suggests. Learning their significance may reveal new strategies for treating age-related diseases. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Aimless Amos” by Rondo Brothers.

Neuroscientists uncovered an energy-saving mode in vision-system neurons that works at the cost of being able to see fine-grained details. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Unanswered Questions” by Kevin MacLeod.

Computer scientists can now solve a decades-old problem in practically the time it takes to write it down. Read more at quantamagazine.org. Music is “Aimless Amos” by Rondo Brothers.

Jared Duker Lichtman, 26, has proved a longstanding conjecture relating prime numbers to a broad class of “primitive” sets. To his adviser, it came as a “complete shock.” Read more at quantamagazine.org. Music is “Thought Bot” by Audionautix.

The second law of thermodynamics is among the most sacred in all of science, but it has always rested on 19th century arguments about probability. New arguments trace its true source to the flows of quantum information. Read more at quantamagazine.org. Music is “Pulse” by Geographer.

Robots are about to venture into the sunless depths of lunar craters to investigate ancient water ice trapped there, while remote studies find hints about how water arrives on rocky worlds. Read more and explore infographics at quantamagazine.org.

For centuries, mathematicians have tried to prove that Euler’s fluid equations can produce nonsensical answers. A new approach to machine learning has researchers betting that “blowup” is near. Read more at quantamagazine.org. Music is “Pulse” by Geographer.

The existence of secure cryptography depends on one of the oldest questions in computational complexity. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Transmission” by John Deley and the 41 Players.

Dopamine, a neurochemical often associated with reward behavior, also seems to help organize precisely when the brain initiates movements. It’s the latest revelation about the power of neuromodulators. Read more at quantamagazine.org. Music is “Pulse” by Geographer.

Biomechanical interactions, rather than neurons, control the movements of one of the simplest animals. The discovery offers a glimpse into how animal behavior worked before neurons evolved. The post This Animal’s Behavior Is Mechanically Programmed first appeared in Quanta Magazine. Music is “Running Out” by Patrick Patrikios.

Dwarf galaxies weren’t supposed to have big black holes. Their surprise discovery has revealed clues about how the universe’s biggest black holes could have formed. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Light Gazing” by Andrew Langdon.

Physicists are reexamining a longstanding assumption: that big stuff consists of smaller stuff. The post A Deepening Crisis Forces Physicists to Rethink Structure of Nature’s Laws first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Researchers have mapped hundreds of semantic categories to the tiny bits of the cortex that represent them in our thoughts and perceptions. What they discovered might change our view of memory. The post New Map of Meaning in the Brain Changes Ideas About Memory first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Two teams have shown how quantum approaches can solve problems faster than classical computers, bringing physics and computer science closer together. The post Machine Learning Gets a Quantum Speedup first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Large blocks of genes conserved through hundreds of millions of years of evolution hint at how the first animal chromosomes came to be. The post Secrets of Early Animal Evolution Revealed by Chromosome ‘Tectonics’ first appeared on Quanta Magazine

We might have a past faint sun to owe for life’s existence. This has consequences for the possibility of life outside Earth. The post A Solution to the Faint-Sun Paradox Reveals a Narrow Window for Life first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Studies that map the adaptive value of viral mutations hint at how the COVID-19 pandemic might progress next. The post Evolution ‘Landscapes’ Predict What’s Next for COVID Virus first appeared on Quanta Magazine

New studies reveal the ancient, shared genetic “grammar” underpinning the diverse evolution of fish fins and tetrapod limbs. The post Flying Fish and Aquarium Pets Yield Secrets of Evolution first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Decades ago, a mathematician posed a warmup problem for some of the most difficult questions about prime numbers. It turned out to be just as difficult to solve, until now. The post Mathematicians Outwit Hidden Number Conspiracy first appeared on Quanta Magazine

A new paper shows how to create longer disordered strings than mathematicians had thought possible, proving that a well-known recent conjecture is “spectacularly wrong.” The post Mathematician Hurls Structure and Disorder Into Century-Old Problem first appeared on Quanta Magazine

By carefully constructing a multidimensional and well-connected graph, a team of researchers has finally created a long-sought locally testable code that can immediately betray whether it’s been corrupted. The post Researchers Defeat Randomness to Create Ideal Code first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Scientists thought that the brain’s hearing centers might just process speech along with other sounds. But new work suggests that speech gets some special treatment very early on. The post The Brain Processes Speech in Parallel With Other Sounds first appeared on Quanta Magazine

The molecular signaling systems of complex cells are nothing like simple electronic circuits. The logic governing their operation is riotously complex — but it has advantages. The post Biologists Rethink the Logic Behind Cells’ Molecular Signals first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Deep in the mantle, a branching plume of intensely hot material appears to be the engine powering vast volcanic activity. The post A Massive Subterranean ‘Tree’ Is Moving Magma to Earth’s Surface first appeared on Quanta Magazine

For over two decades, physicists have pondered how the fabric of space-time may emerge from some kind of quantum entanglement. In Monika Schleier-Smith’s lab at Stanford University, the thought experiment is becoming real. The post One Lab’s Quest to Build Space-Time Out of Quantum Particles first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Investigations of the simplest possible clocks have revealed their fundamental limitations — as well as insights into the nature of time itself. The post The New Thermodynamic Understanding of Clocks first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Familiar categories of mental functions such as perception, memory and attention reflect our experience of ourselves, but they are misleading about how the brain works. More revealing approaches are emerging. The post The Brain Doesn’t Think the Way You Think It Does first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Like a perpetual motion machine, a time crystal forever cycles between states without consuming energy. Physicists claim to have built this new phase of matter inside a quantum computer.

For 50 years, mathematicians have believed that the total number of real numbers is unknowable. A new proof suggests otherwise. The post How Many Numbers Exist? Infinity Proof Moves Math Closer to an Answer. first appeared on Quanta Magazine