Quanta Science Podcast

Quanta Science Podcast episodes:

• 04.17.2024

  Why the Human Brain Perceives Small Numbers Better

  A recent neurological study provides an unprecedented look at how number sense works in the human brain.

  
• 04.03.2024

  Inside Scientists' Life-Saving Prediction of the Iceland Eruption

  An Icelandic peninsula that hadn't seen any volcanism for 800 years has now awoken. Eruptions could continue for decades or even centuries.

  
• 03.20.2024

  Echoes of Electromagnetism Found in Number Theory

  Physics is a rich well of inspiration for mathematicians to draw from.

  
• 03.06.2024

  Tiny Language Models Come of Age

  Using large language models to generate training data for smaller models might be more effective than vacuuming up text from the internet and filtering out the garbage.

  
• 02.21.2024

  Rogue Worlds Throw Planetary Ideas Out of Orbit

  Astronomers have long known of rogue worlds - cosmic loners that drift through space, untethered to a star. Now JWST is spotting them in pairs.

  
• 02.07.2024

  What Makes Life Tick? Mitochondria May Keep Time for Cells

  We're all used to hearing about mitochondria as the powerhouse of the cell. It turns out that they are also the timekeepers.

  
• 01.24.2024

  An Old Conjecture Falls, Making Spheres a Lot More Complicated

  Many discoveries in mathematics make things simpler, but a recent disproof instead creates a universe of new, complicated possibilities.

  
• 01.10.2024

  Even Synthetic Life Forms With a Tiny Genome Can Evolve

  Biologists have discovered that even one of the weakest, simplest self-replicating organisms on the planet can evolve.

  
• 12.20.2023

  Selfish, Virus-Like DNA Can Carry Genes Between Species

  Genetic elements known as "Mavericks" may be responsible for transferring genes between different species throughout the history of life.

  
• 12.06.2023

  Exoplanets Could Help Us Learn How Planets Make Magnetism

  Earth has a magnetic field, but Venus, Earth's sister planet, doesn't. Why does one rocky planet have a magnetic field while the other does not?

  
• 11.21.2023

  To Move Fast, Quantum Maze Solvers Must Forget the Past

  If you've ever entered a room, and then completely forgotten how you got there, you may have something in common with a quantum computer.

  
• 11.08.2023

  Underground Cells Make 'Dark Oxygen' Without Light

  In the groundwaters beneath Alberta, Canada, researchers have found microbes that can produce abundant oxygen, even in the absence of light.

  
• 10.25.2023

  How the Brain Protects Itself From Blood-Borne Threats

  A system of sophisticated pumps and receptors protects the brain like bouncers at the door of an elite club.

  
• 10.11.2023

  JWST Spots Giant Black Holes All Over the Early Universe

  There's never been a more exciting time to study black holes.

  
• 09.27.2023

  Is It Real or Imagined? How Your Brain Tells the Difference.

  A recent neuroscience study reveals how human brains differentiate between the imagined and the observed.

  
• 09.13.2023

  Chatbots Don't Know What Stuff Isn't

  Researchers still don't understand whether machines will ever truly know the word "no."

  
• 08.30.2023

  Global Microbiome Study Gives New View of Shared Health Risks

  A recent study found that the more time you spend with someone, the more likely you are to share strains of species in your microbiome.

  
• 08.16.2023

  Physicists Use Quantum Mechanics to Pull Energy out of Nothing

  A recently demonstrated quantum protocol teleports energy from one location to another without violating any sacred physical principles.

  
• 08.02.2023

  How Loneliness Reshapes the Brain

  Loneliness doesn't just make people feel isolated. It alters their brain in ways that can hinder their ability to trust and connect to others.

  
• 07.19.2023

  Gene Expression in Neurons Solves a Brain Evolution Puzzle

  Our brains have even less in common with reptile brains than was once thought.

  
• 07.05.2023

  Machines Learn Better if We Teach Them the Basics

  To improve reinforcement learning algorithms, computer scientists are training them as if they were human.

  
• 06.21.2023

  The Cause of Depression Is Probably Not What You Think

  Better treatments for depression may require a clear-eyed look at the condition's nuance.

  
• 06.07.2023

  Ants Live 10 Times Longer by Altering Their Insulin Responses

  A tapeworm has evolved the ability to make its ant hosts live longer. Researchers recently discovered how the parasite does it.

  
• 05.24.2023

  How the Brain Distinguishes Memories From Perceptions

  The "blurriness" of remembered images may help our brains distinguish memories from current perceptions.

  
• 05.10.2023

  What Causes Alzheimer's? Scientists Are Rethinking the Answer. (Pt 2)

  Researchers investigating alternatives to amyloid plaques as the possible cause of Alzheimer's disease have faced resistance, but intriguing new theories have emerged.

  
• 04.26.2023

  What Causes Alzheimer's? Scientists Are Rethinking the Answer. (Pt. 1)

  For three decades, most Alzheimer's researchers have stuck by the theory that aggregations of proteins called amyloid plaques cause the disease. But unsatisfied with the slow pace of progress, some are now exploring other hypotheses.

  
• 04.12.2023

  Astronomers Say They Have Spotted the Universe's First Stars

  Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, we may have just gotten a glimpse of the first generation of stars.

  
• 03.29.2023

  New Chip Expands the Possibilities for AI

  Chips that run on an analog spectrum of memory rather than 0s and 1s could transform energy-efficient AI.

  
• 03.15.2023

  How Supergenes Fuel Evolution Despite Harmful Mutations

  "Supergenes" lock several genes together into a single inheritable unit. This type of evolution offers both risks and rewards.

  
• 03.01.2023

  Brightest-Ever Space Explosion Reveals Possible Hints of Dark Matter

  In 2022, astronomers saw the brightest gamma-ray burst ever observed by humans. Did it also offer a glimpse of dark matter?

  
• 02.16.2023

  Inside the Proton, the 'Most Complicated Thing You Could Possibly Imagine'

  What's inside a proton? Your answer may vary depending on how hard you hit it with electrons.

  
• 02.01.2023

  High-Temperature Superconductivity Understood at Last

  Physicists have all but confirmed the phenomenon behind the strongest known form of superconductivity.

  
• 01.18.2023

  Record-Breaking Robot Highlights How Animals Excel at Jumping

  A robot has, in all likelihood, leapt higher than any animal or machine before it on Earth.

  
• 01.04.2023

  A Good Memory or a Bad One? One Brain Molecule Decides.

  The brain may be fearful and pessimistic by default.

  
• 12.21.2022

  Old Problem About Mathematical Curves Falls to Young Couple

  A husband and wife math duo solved an algebraic question that went unanswered for more than a century.

  
• 12.07.2022

  How the Physics of Nothing Underlies Everything

  The key to understanding the origin and fate of the universe may be a more complete understanding of the vacuum.

  
• 11.23.2022

  Geometric Analysis Reveals How Birds Mastered Flight

  Scientists are beginning to grasp the biomechanics that allow birds to maneuver in the air.

  
• 11.09.2022

  How the 'Diamond of the Plant World' Helped Land Plants Evolve

  Scientists are beginning to crack secrets from one of the sturdiest organic materials in nature.

  
• 10.26.2022

  Protein Blobs Linked to Alzheimer's Affect Aging in All Cells

  A first-of-its-kind study offers a fresh perspective on what happens inside cells as they age.

  
• 10.12.2022

  The Brain Has a 'Low-Power Mode' That Blunts Our Senses

  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.

  
• 09.28.2022

  Researchers Achieve 'Absurdly Fast' Algorithm for Network Flow

  Mathematicians recently figured out a near-optimal way to go with the flow.

  
• 09.14.2022

  Graduate Student's Side Project Proves Prime Number Conjecture

  A graduate student recently proved Paul Erdős' conjecture about what makes the prime numbers particularly unique among primitive sets.

  
• 08.31.2022

  Physicists Rewrite the Fundamental Law That Leads to Disorder

  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.

  
• 08.17.2022

  Secrets of the Moon's Permanent Shadows Are Coming to Light

  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.

  
• 08.10.2022

  What Is Quantum Field Theory and Why Is It Incomplete?

  Quantum field theory may be the most successful scientific theory of all time, but there's reason to think it's missing something. Steven Strogatz speaks with theoretical physicist David Tong about this enigmatic theory.

  
• 08.03.2022

  Deep Learning Poised to 'Blow Up' Famed Fluid Equations

  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.

  
• 07.19.2022

  Researchers Identify 'Master Problem' Underlying All Cryptography

  The existence of secure cryptography depends on one of the oldest questions in computational complexity.

  
• 07.06.2022

  Brain Chemical Helps Signal to Neurons When to Start a Movement

  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.

  
• 06.22.2022

  This Animal's Behavior Is Mechanically Programmed

  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.

  
• 06.08.2022

  Tiny Galaxies Reveal Secrets of Supermassive Black Holes

  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.