We don’t know why the universe appears to be expanding faster than it should. New ultra-precise distance measurements have only intensified the problem.

Mistletoes have all but shut down the powerhouses of their cells. Scientists are still trying to understand the plants’ unorthodox survival strategy.

Today’s information age is only possible thanks to the groundbreaking work of a lone genius.

Featuring paradoxical black holes, room-temperature superconductors and a new escape from the prison of time.

Featuring paradoxical black holes, room-temperature superconductors and a new escape from the prison of time.

Even as mathematicians and computer scientists proved big results in computational complexity, number theory and geometry, computers proved themselves increasingly indispensable in mathematics.

While the study of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was the most urgent priority, biologists also learned more about how brains process information, how to define individuality and why sleep deprivation kills.

Online comment platforms can bring out the best — and the worst — in people. At the end of a tumultuous year, Quanta's editors highlight some of our favorite things you had to say.

A number theorist recalls his first encounter with the Riemann hypothesis and breaks down the math in a new Quanta video.

Two teams found different ways for quantum computers to process nonlinear systems by first disguising them as linear ones.

For decades, astronomers debated whether a particular smudge was close-by and small, or distant and huge. A new X-ray map supports the massive option.

Inside cells, droplets of biomolecules called condensates merge, divide and dissolve. Their dance may regulate vital processes.

A glass sponge found deep in the Pacific shows a remarkable ability to withstand compression and bending, on top of the sponge’s other unusual properties.

Frank Wilczek has been at the forefront of theoretical physics for the past 50 years. He talks about winning the Nobel Prize for work he did as a student, his

Imagine if we lived on a cube-shaped Earth. How would you find the shortest path around the world?

Long considered solved, David Hilbert’s question about seventh-degree polynomials is leading researchers to a new web of mathematical connections.

Christine Darden worked at NASA for 40 years, helping make supersonic planes quieter and forging a path for women to follow in her footsteps.

In grafted plants, shrunken chloroplasts can jump between species by slipping through unexpected gateways in cell walls.

Three-dimensional supernova simulations have solved the mystery of why they explode at all.

Since they can't prod actual universes as they inflate and bump into each other in the hypothetical multiverse, physicists are studying digital and physical analogs of the process.

January 26, 2021