A brain circuit that suppresses distracting sensory information holds important clues about attention and other cognitive processes. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is "Aimless Amos" by the Rondo Brothers.

To Pay Attention, the Brain Uses Filters, Not a Spotlight

Susan Valot narrates in-depth news episodes based on Quanta Magazine's articles about mathematics, physics, biology and computer science.

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Physics

Life Sciences

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

Why the Human Brain Perceives Small Numbers Better

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

Inside Scientists' Life-Saving Prediction of the Iceland Eruption

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

Echoes of Electromagnetism Found in Number Theory

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.

Tiny Language Models Come of Age

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

To Pay Attention, the Brain Uses Filters, Not a Spotlight

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