The Quanta Podcast

You might imagine that the DNA in your cells has a simple history. But that’s not the entire story. Nearly half of your genome is a wild drama, thanks to a genetic material called transposons that can clip itself out of the DNA sequence, float off, and paste itself somewhere else. While these “jumping genes” may seem pathological, they’re more than just junk.  On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Hannah Waters speaks with writer Jake Buehler about these unruly genetic fragments and their connections to the evolution of everything from moths to wombs. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   The audio coda this week is a piece of music called Transposon. It's a musical sonification of transposable elements from the human genome by composer and sound artist Sam Nester. He created it in collaboration with genomicist Stéphane Boissinot as part of a year-long artist-in-residence at the Center for Genomics and Systems Biology at NYU Abu Dhabi. Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor-in-chief Samir Patel and Senior Editor Hannah Waters speak with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Focus, commitment, and insight resulted in a “once in a century” proof. Hong Wang is now just the third woman to win a Fields Medal. The article Living Fully in the Math World Means Threading the Needle first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

When all you can see is a speck, it’s hard to tell what you’re looking at. Astronomers first argued that little red dots spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope in 2022 were distant galaxies on the cosmic horizon, mainly because of their brightness. Later, they concluded that little red dots look more like the supermassive black holes that sit at the heart of most galaxies. But in the spring of 2025, two teams of astronomers simultaneously announced observations of a pair of little red dots that were unlike all the rest. In fact, they were unlike any object ever seen. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with writer Charlie Wood to talk about the new celestial body that may have just dropped, what some astronomers are calling “black hole stars.”This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor-in-chief Samir Patel and Senior Editor Hannah Waters speak with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. This week's coda is a sonification of data from a device known as the NIRSpec integral field unit on NASA's Webb telescope. Here, the pitch of the sound represents the velocity of hydrogen gas moving around the black hole. The higher the pitch, the faster it is moving toward the telescope. This data enabled the first direct mass measurement of a black hole from the first billion years of the universe. Coda Credit - Sonification: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Christopher Britt (STScI), Ralf Crawford (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Margaret Carruthers (STScI); Science: Ignas Juodžbalis (Cambridge), Cosimo Marconcini (University of Florence), Roberto Maiolino (Cambridge), Francesco D'Eugenio (Cambridge), Hannah Übler (MPE)

In 1852, the mathematician Francis Guthrie was coloring in a map of English counties when he noticed that he needed only four colors. Was this always true, he wondered? The question captured the imagination of hobbyists and professionals alike — and in 1976, the mathematicians Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken proved it, rather controversially using computers. Recently, mathematicians have revisited the four-color theorem and found a more efficient way to color maps with just four colors. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with writer Greg Barber about the “four-color disease,” its history of false starts and dashed hopes, and what modern mathematicians have learned about graphs by revisiting this famous problem. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor-in-chief Samir Patel and Senior Editor Hannah Waters speak with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Researchers have used metamathematical techniques to show that certain theorems that look superficially distinct are in fact logically equivalent. The article ‘Reverse Mathematics’ Illuminates Why Hard Problems Are Hard first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

In popular culture, computer science is practically synonymous with programming. There are obviously branches of computer science in which computer hardware and software are essential, such as in the design of operating systems or the study of memory management. But in the theoretical side of the field, researchers need not ever touch a real, physical computer. Do computers play an essential conceptual role in that kind of theoretical work?  On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel wades into an age-old debate with writer Ben Brubaker: If computer science isn’t about computers, then what is it about? This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor-in-chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. The audio coda clip comes from the Computer History Museum. The use of this audio clip shall not be used to show or imply CHM endorsements of any commercial product or enterprise, or to indicate that the CHM concurs with the opinions expressed in the podcast.

If you are well rested and full, your brain tells you that a bruised overripe apple is a piece of subpar fruit to be passed over. However, if you are exhausted and hungry, an overripe apple is categorized as much-needed food. But how is the brain able to categorize that same apple in these situations? On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, co-host Hannah Waters speaks with contributing writer Conor Feehly about how the brain manages to categorize similar sets of sensory signals in radically different ways. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, hear the people behind the award-winning publication navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

The newly described microbe represents a world of parasitic, intercellular biodiversity only beginning to be revealed by genome sequencing. The article A Cell So Minimal That It Challenges Definitions of Life first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

Combinatorial discrepancy theory is a branch of mathematics concerned with balance. If you’re making two teams — sports, trivia, you name it — how can you make sure that they’re perfectly balanced and fair, skill-wise? You start with vectors.  On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with award-winning science journalist and regular contributor Max Levy on an “absurd,” “holy grail” conjecture, and the major breakthrough made in fall 2025 by two theoretical computer scientists.  This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel and Senior Editor Hannah Waters speak with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

The Navier-Stokes equations are enormously successful at predicting how fluids flow and swirl. But they fail to account for the microscopic bits that make up matter. But now math based on symmetries offers a new conception of fluids and why they behave the way that they do. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with writer Charlie Wood on the longstanding effort to rebuild the theory of fluids from the bottom up, including a strange connection to black holes and models that simultaneously run time forward and backward. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel and Senior Editor Hannah Waters speak with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Mathematicians have broken through a long-standing barrier in the study of “minimizing surfaces,” which play an important role in both math and physics. The article New Proofs Probe Soap-Film Singularities first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

Reasoning comes in many technically defined forms, but the basic procedure is easily recognizable: arriving at a sound conclusion by linking together intermediate steps that logically follow from each other. But when it comes to artificial intelligence, it appears AI can either solve famous mathematical research problems in one shot — or experience a “complete accuracy collapse” under the simplest conditions. So which is it: Can AI reason reliably or not? On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with writer John Pavlus on the intellectual whiplash surrounding artificial intelligence’s ability to reason. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel and Senior Editor Hannah Waters speak with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Why are only 10% of people left-handed? Geneticists, developmental biologists, neuroscientists, and evolutionary biologists have all sought explanations, resulting in an astronomical amount of research into the mystery of handedness. No one has put all the pieces together yet, but over the last few years, some major new clues have emerged. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Hannah Waters speaks with writer Natalie Wolchover and traces these new clues to uncover the mystery of human handedness. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel and Senior Editor Hannah Waters speak with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Has the secret to understanding gravity been hiding in plain sight for nearly 50 years? The article Old ‘Ghost’ Theory of Quantum Gravity Makes a Comeback first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

Generally, dark energy and dark matter are regarded as separate entities, but recent astronomical observations have spurred scientists to look further into a less widespread idea — that the two are in fact physically intertwined. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with Physics Editor Kathryn Jepsen about the theories surrounding dark energy’s ties to dark matter and the possibility of a shared dark universe. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel and Senior Editor Hannah Waters speak with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

There’s no scientific consensus about what makes living things so different from inorganic material. Some scientists cite replication or metabolism. Others have another answer: Living organisms are different because they do stuff — for reasons. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with writer Philip Ball on the hotly contested idea of “biological agency” and what it means to be alive. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel and Senior Editor Hannah Waters speak with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

You’re carrying around in your head a model of how the world works. Will AI systems need to do the same? The article ‘World Models,’ an Old Idea in AI, Mount a Comeback first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

In 1992, mathematicians Dave Bayer and Persi Diaconis proved that seven riffle shuffles are enough to shuffle a deck of cards — but only if you can cut your deck with precision. Decades later, a new proof has finally extended the finding to less precise cuts. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with math editor Jordana Cepelewicz about how a mathematical cutoff phenomenon still exists for riffle shuffling — randomness seems to happen all at once. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel and Senior Editor Hannah Waters speak with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. In "The Best (and Worst) Ways to Shuffle Cards" from the YouTube channel Numberphile, Persi Diaconis demonstrates different kinds of shuffles, why you might want to stick with a classic riffle shuffle instead of what is called the overhand method and explains his seven shuffles result: https://youtu.be/AxJubaijQbI?si=WctYYRtCZVupMldO

Volcano forecasting can save countless lives. But most of the time warnings are more like educated guesses. How close are we to forecasting volcano behavior the way we forecast the weather? On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Hannah Waters speaks with writer and volcano expert Robin George Andrews about just how close we are to accurately forecasting volcanic eruptions.  This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel and Senior Editor Hannah Waters speak with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Scientists have identified tubulin structures in primitive Asgard archea that may have been the precursor of our own cellular skeletons. The article Tiny Tubes Reveal Clues to the Evolution of Complex Life first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

In the 60s, an eccentric behavioral psychologist pureed a bunch of planarian worms and fed them to other ones. For years after, he claimed that the cannibal worms learned the ground-up worms’ memories. Could he have been… right? On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel and columnist Claire L. Evans discuss the weird history of memory transfer experiments, and their recent resurgence — and some them appear to be working.  This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. At the end of the episode is a clip from a 1966 Sound Seminars lecture by Dr. James V. McConnell called Cannibals, Chemicals and Memory, where he describes how his experimental work led to the conclusion that flatworms can learn.  Audio coda credit: The Drs. Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, The University of Akron, Ohio.

How many pieces are there in the Standard Model of particle physics? 17, 30, 37, 61, 118? Or is the true answer much larger — and not even an integer? It depends on your taste for complexity — and mystery. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel and columnist Natalie Wolchover plummet down another rabbit hole, and this one goes down to the very building blocks of our reality. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Amid the chaos of revolutionary France, one man’s mathematical obsession gave way to a calculation that now underpins much of mathematics and physics. The calculation, called the Fourier transform, decomposes any function into its parts.  The story What Is the Fourier Transform? first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

The groundbreaking proof assistant Lean acts as a sort of automatic quality control. It’s gaining ground in the math world — in part because it can interact with AI to open new avenues of inquiry. But there are concerns, too. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with author Kevin Harnett about his new book, the first release from Quanta Books, “The Proof in the Code.” It was featured in a recentexcerpt for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

How do you define a species? The question has been controversial since the days of Darwin. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with writer Marlowe Starling about how recent advances in genomics have both clarified and complicated the picture. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Thunderstorms have captivated humanity for millennia, and yet their inner workings remain deeply mysterious. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, guest host and Quanta senior editor Hannah Waters speaks with staff writer Charlie Wood about the new technologies that are helping physicists better understand the phenomena. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, hear the people behind the award-winning publication navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. At the end of the episode, listen to an excerpt of the fourth movement of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, which depicts a violent thunderstorm. Piccolo represents lightning and timpani represents thunder. Courtesy of Symphony Orchestra. Deed - Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons

According to Einstein’s theory of gravity, black holes have only a small handful of distinguishing characteristics. Quantum theory implies they may have more. Now an experimental search finds that any of this extra ‘hair’ has to be pretty short. The story Astrophysicists Find No ‘Hair’ on Black Holes first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

In 2026, shock at AI’s growing mathematical abilities turned into something more like wonder — and concern. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with writer Konstantin Kakaes about how AI is changing not only how mathematicians do math, but also why they do it. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Over the past decade, computer simulations have predicted tens of thousands of possible forms of ice. Though uncommon on our planet, exotic ice may exist in off-Earth environments, from cold and amorphous comet tails to the hot and crushing cores of icy planets. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with math writer Shalma Wegsman about why water is exceptionally versatile under pressure. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Fundamental technique lets researchers use a big, expensive “teacher” model to train a “student” model for less. The story How Distillation Makes AI Models Smaller and Cheaper first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

Billions of years ago, battles between bacteria and viruses wrote the rulebook for how hosts and pathogens behave. Today, our immune system follows suit. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with writer Viviane Callier about how recent discoveries could shape how we think about the evolution of immunity. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine. Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Most mathematicians take the notion of infinity for granted — it’s deeply rooted in math’s most fundamental assumptions. But a small group of researchers hopes to banish infinity completely. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with math editor Jordana Cepelewicz about the philosophy of ultrafinitism. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine. Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda music & lyrics by Michael Tilson Thomas.  Vocals performed by Ben Jones. Piano performed by John Wilson.

In a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park, a microbe does something that life shouldn’t be able to do: It breathes oxygen and sulfur at the same time. The story The Cells That Breathe Two Ways first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

Together, Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard figured out how to use the laws of quantum physics to keep secret messages safe from eavesdroppers. Their efforts have earned them one of the highest awards in computing and a $1 million prize. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with staff writer Ben Brubaker about this year’s Turing Prize winners, and some of the most important concepts in quantum information science. This topic was covered in a recent column for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda by Charles Bennett/IBM

Is string theory the one true “theory of everything?” Some physicists swear it’s a fundamental ingredient of nature. Others wish it would just go away. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with columnist Natalie Wolchover about the mathematical developments that are keeping the theory relevant — much to the chagrin of its rather vocal critics. This topic was covered in a recent column for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. This episode's audio coda is a clip from a 2024 live show of Alchemical String Theory (AST), a collective of avant-garde string artists from Atlanta's Improvisational Underground, performing a round at the Red Light Cafe in Atlanta.

For decades, mathematicians have struggled to understand matrices that reflect both order and randomness, like those that model semiconductors. A new method could change that. The story New Physics-Inspired Proof Probes the Borders of Disorder first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

At the center of little holes in cell nuclei is a mystery. Here, clumps of proteins wiggle disordered tails around like seaweed. They drive a molecular machine that moves countless molecules in and out of the nucleus efficiently, with little room for error. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with biology writer Yasemin Saplakoglu about how new high-def microscopy is revealing the intricacies of these nuclear pore complexes like never before. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

We tend to think of math as all about logic and rigor. But what “rigor” actually means has been shaken up quite a few times over the past few centuries. The newest attempt to formalize math comes in the form of the computer program Lean. Mathematicians have mixed feelings. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with math editor Jordana Cepelewicz about how mathematicians today are navigating the tricky balancing act between creativity and formalization. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Artificial intelligence software is designing novel experimental protocols that improve upon the work of human physicists, although the humans are still “doing a lot of baby-sitting.” The story AI Comes Up With Bizarre Physics Experiments. But They Work. first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

Humanoid robots can run, crawl, and sort objects in flashy demos. So why can’t they reliably climb stairs or open doors? On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with contributing writer John Pavlus on why robots still struggle with the messy physics of the real world. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. In this video, Atlas walks, runs and crawls using reinforcement learning. This work was done as part of a research partnership between Boston Dynamics and the Robots and AI (RAI) Institute: https://youtu.be/I44_zbEwz_w?si=KuKC34o_PiKs8zJP

To better understand our cosmos, some astronomers and astrophysicists go old school. Preserved beautifully on a hundred years of glass plate photographs are images of our night sky and its ever changing variations. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with writer Liz Kruesi about how these antique plates are updating our modern understanding of the universe.  This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda by Diana Chester. This project by Diana Chester was made possible through a Powerhouse Research Fellowship at the Museum of Arts and Applied Sciences in Sydney, Australia, a collaboration with Dr. Anna Raupach, and with the support of the Sydney Observatory and the New South Wales archives.

Image generators are designed to mimic their training data, so where does their apparent creativity come from? A recent study suggests that it’s an inevitable by-product of their architecture. The story Researchers Uncover Hidden Ingredients Behind AI Creativity first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

We tend to think of neurons as the sole engine of our thoughts, emotions, and everything in between.  For decades, a group of large brain cells called astrocytes have been thought of as mere packing peanuts for the brain. But new research suggests otherwise. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with writer Ingrid Wickelgren about these big cells’ big responsibilities, which include controlling brain states like hopelessness, sleep, and hunger. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio Coda by NASA.

In 1874, Georg Cantor published one of the most important papers in math’s 4,000-year history. Some ideas in it were stolen. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, the second of a two-parter, host Samir Patel speaks with math editor Jordana Cepelewicz about the fate of Cantor, the myths surrounding math history, and one man's search for the truth. These episodes are based on a recent Quanta story. Explore our new special series, “The Evolving Foundations of Math,” on our website. Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda courtesy of TheAlpineSisters Alphorn Players.

By simulating ecological networks with microbes, researchers revealed properties that may make natural communities susceptible to invasion. The story The Ecosystem Dynamics That Can Make or Break an Invasion first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

In 1874, Georg Cantor published one of the most important papers in math’s 4,000-year history. Some ideas in it were stolen. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, the first of a two-parter, host Samir Patel speaks with math editor Jordana Cepelewicz about the hard-fought journey to embed the concept of infinity into math’s foundations. The real story is a lot more complicated than the one remembered in math history. These episodes are based on a recent story; stay tuned for the conclusion next week. Explore our new special series, “The Evolving Foundations of Math,” on our website.    Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Parallel universes, mysterious collapses, divided worlds. These are among the interpretations of quantum theory’s relationship with reality. It’s no wonder that everyone still has questions. But a century after quantum theory emerged, some of its old mysteries may be finally dissolving. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel and contributing writer Philip Ball check in on the age-old question: What 𝘪𝘴 reality? This topic was covered in arecent storyfor Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda courtesy of the Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo.

By mathematically proving how individual molecules create the complex motion of fluids, three mathematicians have illuminated why time can’t flow in reverse. The story Epic Effort to Ground Physics in Math Opens Up the Secrets of Time first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

What guides a bat’s internal compass? It’s not the stars in the sky, or the Earth’s magnetic field. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with staff writer Yasemin Saplakoglu about how new research into animals’ sense of direction could help explain the feeling of getting “turned around,” or even why some of us are so bad at finding our way. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio Coda from Prat, Y., Taub, M. & Yovel, Y. Everyday bat vocalizations contain information about emitter, addressee, context, and behavior. Sci Rep 6, 39419 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep39419

In reality, water doesn’t glitch out. It can’t instantly change direction or spurt randomly into the sky. But on a purely mathematical level, such things are possible. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with staff writer Charlie Wood about the equations that describe our rivers, whirlpools, and breezes — and the “unstable blowups” that mathematicians are probing them for. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine. Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Every elementary particle falls into one of two categories. Collectivist bosons account for the forces that move us while individualist fermions keep our atoms from collapsing. The story Matter vs. Force: Why There Are Exactly Two Types of Particles first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

In the allegory of Plato’s cave, prisoners see the world only through shadows. Extending this metaphor to AI, AI models are the prisoners and the shadows are streams of data. Are all models converging on a singular representation of reality? On this week’s episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with staff writer Ben Brubaker about how, despite being trained on entirely different data types, different models can somehow develop similar internal representations. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda: The Cave: A Parable Told By Orson Welles, Produced by Counterpoint Films, directed by Sam Weiss, and illustrated by Dick Oden. https://www.acmi.net.au/works/65888--the-cave-a-parable-told-by-orson-welles/

Particle physics hasn't yet found the new physics needed to resolve its deepest mysteries. It’s hard to know what to think about or look for. But the most devoted particle physicists are thinking and looking all the same. On this episode, host Samir Patel and columnist Natalie Wolchover discuss the first of our new series of curiosity-driven essays, Qualia, where Natalie asks particle physicists whether the field is facing a profound crisis.  This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine. Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio Coda provided by UCL High Energy Physics.

Reversible programs run backward as easily as they run forward, saving energy in theory. After decades of research, they may soon power AI. The story How Can AI Researchers Save Energy? By Going Backward first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

We already know that what we eat, drink, and inhale can affect which parts of our DNA are expressed, and which aren’t. But recent research poses a shocking idea: A dad’s habits may be encoded in molecules and transmitted to his future kids. On this episode, host Samir Patel and biology editor Hannah Waters dig into the new epigenetic mouse studies exploring whether sperm cells carry more than just genetic information. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda in this episode: Motivation and reward in learning - Produced by the Institute of Human Relations at Yale University, Published by Penn State University, Psychological Cinema Register [1948].

Imagine you’re holding two equal-size dice. Is it possible to bore a tunnel through one die that’s big enough for the other to slide through? It is — but what about other shapes? In a paper posted online in August, two researchers describe a shape with 90 vertices and 152 faces that they’ve named the Noperthedron, the first convex polyhedron that definitely cannot pass through itself.  In this episode, Quanta contributor Erica Klarriech tells host Samir Patel about how the researchers discovered the shape, and how it solves a centuries-old geometric mystery.  Audio coda courtesy of the Gemsmen Renaissance Consort.

Studies of neural metabolism reveal our brain’s effort to keep us alive and the evolutionary constraints that sculpted our most complex organ. The story How Much Energy Does It Take To Think? first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

Ask ChatGPT how to build a bomb, and it will flatly respond that it “can’t help with that.” But users have long played a cat-and-mouse game to try to trick language models into providing forbidden information. Just as quickly as these “jailbreaks” appear, AI companies patch them by simply filtering out forbidden prompts before they ever reach the model itself. Recently, cryptographers have shown how the defensive filters put around powerful language models can be subverted by well-studied cryptographic tools. In fact, they’ve shown how the very nature of this two-tier system — a filter that protects a powerful language model inside it — creates gaps in the defenses that can always be exploited. In this episode, Quanta executive editor Michael Moyer tells Samir Patel about the findings and implications of this new work. Audio coda courtesy of Banana Breakdown.

(This episode was first published in June 2025.) Changes in the number, shape, efficiency and interconnectedness of organelles in the cells of flight muscles provide extra energy for birds’ continent-spanning feats. This is the fifth episode of The Quanta Podcast. In each episode, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the minds behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

(This episode was first published in July 2025.)  Where does gravity come from? In both general relativity and quantum mechanics, this question is a big problem. One controversial theory proposes that the force arises from the universe's tendency toward disorder, or entropy. In this episode, host Samir Patel speaks with contributing writer George Musser about the long-shot idea called "entropic gravity," which Musser covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine. Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the minds behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda provided by Cosmic Perspective.

By extending the scope of the key insight behind Fermat’s Last Theorem, four mathematicians have made great strides toward building a “grand unified theory” of math. The story The Core of Fermat’s Last Theorem Just Got Superpowered first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

We all know that hot coffee cools down. But quantum mechanics can enable heat to flow the “wrong” way, making hot objects hotter and cold objects colder. Now physicists think this might have an ingenious use. On this week’s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with writer Philip Ball about how a new "quantum demon” may allow information to be processed in ways that classical physics does not permit. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda by Forma, courtesy of Kranky.

In math and science, knots do far more than keep shoes on feet. For more than a century, mathematicians have studied the properties of different knots and been rewarded by a wide range of useful applications across science. Classifying how some knots are different from others is an important part of this work.  Earlier this year, two mathematicians found that a theory for how to differentiate between knots is false. In fact, they found infinitely many counterexamples that prove that this method for studying knots does not work the way it’s supposed to. In this episode, contributing writer Leila Sloman joins editor in chief Samir Patel to tell the story of how the unknotting number came unraveled. Audio coda courtesy of Zinadelphia.

When pigeons outnumber pigeonholes, some birds must double up. This obvious statement — and its inverse — have deep connections to many areas of math and computer science. The story How a Problem About Pigeons Powers Complexity Theory first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

Every summer since 1983, scientists at Crater Lake National Park have gathered data about the lake’s famous clarity. This past summer, Quanta contributing writer Rachel Nuwer journeyed with them as they conducted their annual tests. On this week’s episode, Nuwer and host Samir Patel discuss what gives the lake its vivid blue color, and what its data can tell us about the way water moves through a deep temperate lake. Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda recorded at Crater Lake National Park in July 2010 by theNational Park Service Natural Sounds Program.

How do sellers decide how to price their goods? Competition should keep prices down, while collusion can rig higher prices (and break the law). On this week’s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with staff writer Ben Brubaker about how computer scientists are using game theory to see how algorithms might result in high prices without shady backroom deals. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Tom 7's YouTube channel Audio coda from FDR Presidential Library & Museum.

At first glance, studying the math of waves seems like it should be smooth sailing. But the equations that describe even the gentlest rolling waves are a mathematical nightmare to solve. On this week’s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with math staff writer Joseph Howlett why waves are so elusive, even in a simplified world of equations. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda is "The Merry Golden Tree" by Shovel Dance Collective.

Salvador Dalí, Thomas Edison and Edgar Allan Poe all took inspiration from the state between sleep and waking life. On this week’s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with biology staff writer Yasemin Saplakoglu about how brain systems dictate the strange transitions into and out of sleep. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda: Copyright in The Mike Wallace Interview with Salvador Dalí is owned by the University of Michigan Board of Regents and managed by Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. The Harry Ransom Center (HRC) at the University of Texas, Austin University Libraries, is the owner of the physical kinescope.

A powerful mathematical technique is used to model melting ice and other phenomena. But it has long been imperiled by certain “nightmare scenarios.” A new proof has removed that obstacle. The story A New Proof Smooths Out the Math of Melting first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

Recently, astrophysicists identified something peculiar: An enormous “naked” black hole with no galaxy in sight. On this week’s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with physics staff writer Charlie Wood about how the strange little red dot is upending our assumptions of the first billion years of cosmic history. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda courtesy of Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab.

Thanks to a delicate interplay between plate tectonics and life, Earth’s thermostat has kept animal life thriving on our planet for half a billion years. On this week’s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with contributing writer Peter Brannen about our planetary highs and lows, and the precarious goldilocks zone our animal-filled finds itself in now. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda courtesy of Martin Rietze's YouTube channel.

A new proposal makes the case that paraparticles — a new category of quantum particle — could be created in exotic materials. The story ‘Paraparticles’ Would Be a Third Kingdom of Quantum Particle first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

Imagine a set of simple building blocks that can self-assemble into any shape you want. The possibilities for such a technology could be boundless. Inspired by nature, “complexity engineering” seeks to design such blocks, building on a classic computer simulation. On this week’s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with contributing writer George Musser about recent developments in so-called cellular automata. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.   Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda courtesy of the Simons Foundation.

Around 6,000 years ago, the Sahara was a lush grassland. Then, as if a switch flipped, it began to dry out, becoming the desert that we know today. Tipping points are moments in Earth’s history where gradual change suddenly becomes rapid and forms a new equilibrium. They’re one of the most alarming threats of our planet’s near future — and one of the most uncertain. When will a tipping point occur? Mathematicians are attempting to turn vague, apocalyptic visions into something that we can actually prepare for and deal with. On this week’s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with contributing writer Gregory Barber about what tipping points can — and cannot — tell us about the future of our planet. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine. Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda courtesy of Gresham College.

It’s been difficult to find important questions that quantum computers can answer faster than classical machines, but a new algorithm appears to do it for some critical optimization tasks. The story Quantum Speedup Found for Huge Class of Hard Problems first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

“Memory” means many things to many people, and in many fields. We tend to understand memory to be a phenomenon that happens primarily in the brain, but in recent years, researchers have understood memory as a physical phenomenon that can occur in plenty of systems. On this episode, contributing writer Claire L. Evans tells host Samir Patel about how neuroscientists are probing the memory of individual cells. Audio coda courtesy of YACHT.

The climate is changing. So is the way we understand the climate. On this week's episode, contributing writer Zack Savitsky joins host Samir Patel to discuss his recent reporting on the rich history and uncertain future of climate modeling, the field of science that blends math, physics, and earth science to predict the behavior of our planet's complex climate system. Audio coda courtesy of Princeton University

Rare and powerful compounds, known as keystone molecules, can build a web of invisible interactions among species. The story A New, Chemical View of Ecosystems first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

In order to trust machines with important jobs, we need a high level of confidence that they share our values and goals. Recent work shows that this “alignment” can be brittle, superficial, even unstable. In one study, a few training adjustments led a popular chatbot to recommend murder. On this episode, contributing writer Stephen Ornes tells host Samir Patel about what this research reveals. Audio coda from The National Archives and Records Administration.

For most of us, the word “climate” immediately generates thoughts of melting ice, rising seas, wildfires and gathering storms. However, in the course of working to understand this pressing challenge, scientists have revealed so much more: A fundamental understanding of how Earth’s climate works.  Quanta recently published a nine-story series that investigates this basic science. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, senior editor Hannah Waters joins editor in chief Samir Patel to discuss how humans have come to understand our planet. Crying Glacier Audio Coda by Ludwig Berger, Lutz Stautner and Philipp Becker

The deceptively simple Kakeya conjecture has bedeviled mathematicians for 50 years. A new proof of the conjecture in three dimensions illuminates a whole crop of related problems. The story ‘Once in a Century’ Proof Settles Math’s Kakeya Conjecture first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

In the field of harmonic analysis, there’s a constellation of questions about how the energy of a wave concentrates. Earlier this year, a 17-year-old high school student named Hannah Cairo solved a 40-year-old mystery about how some of these waves behave, surprising and exciting mathematicians. Cairo has not yet obtained a high school or undergraduate degree, but she recently began a doctoral program at the University of Maryland to continue her already impressive career studying mathematics. In this week's episode, math editor Jordana Cepelewicz joins host Samir Patel to discuss the significance of Cairo's proof. Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

In science textbooks, Earth looks like a round layer cake. There's a hard line between the liquid metal core and the putty-like rock mantle. But maybe that boundary is a little fuzzier than we previously thought. Strange, continent sized blobs rest on the dividing line. These blobs are leaching material from the Earth’s core, extending arms out into the mantle, and sending core material up and out through magmatic plumes.  No one's completely sure how it’s happening. On this week’s episode, host Samir Patel and writer Robin George Andrews dig into the ancient isotopic signatures that are helping us better understand the material bubbling up from the depths of our planet. This topic was covered in a recent storyfor Quanta Magazine. Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda courtesy of wildlife photographers Gudmann & Gyda

Astronomers are ready to search for the fingerprints of life in faraway planetary atmospheres. But first, they need to know where to look — and that means figuring out which planets are likely to have atmospheres in the first place. The story How Undergraduate The Road Map to Alien Life Passes Through the ‘Cosmic Shoreline’ first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

We’re living in the golden age of cryptography. Since the 1970s, we've had more confidence in encryption than ever before. But there's a difference between confidence and absolute certainty. And computer scientists care a lot about that difference. The search is always on for better, more secure secrets. But is it possible for digital security to be truly, provably unbreakable? Maybe, with a little help from math and physics. On this week’s episode, host Samir Patel talks with 𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢 computer science staff writer Ben Brubaker about a developing frontier of digital security: quantum cryptography. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine. Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio Coda from the Bletchley Park Trust.

How many oranges can you fit in a box? Mathematicians are obsessed with perfecting their answer to this question in not just our familiar three-dimensional world, but in higher and higher dimensions beyond it. For several decades, they've made only minimal progress toward finding an optimal solution. Then, this past April, an outsider to the field named Boaz Klartag posted a proof that bested these previous records by a significant margin. In this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel and Quanta math staff writer Joseph Howlett discuss how Klartag resuscitated an old technique that experts had abandoned decades earlier to optimize sphere packing in any arbitrarily high dimension. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda created by Daniel Simion

A young computer scientist and two colleagues show that searches within data structures called hash tables can be much faster than previously deemed possible. The story How Undergraduate Upends a 40-Year-Old Data Science Conjecture first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

As far as we know, quantum mechanics is a universal theory that explains matter and light more or less perfectly. It shows us why atoms don't collapse and why electrons don't spiral into the nucleus of the atom. It explains why glass is clear, why grass is green, why the sky is blue. But no one fully understands how the math of quantum mechanics connects with the reality we live in. One could spend a lifetime getting into the weeds and still have unanswered questions.  In honor of quantum mechanics’ 100th birthday, host Samir Patel talks with Quanta physics staff writer Charlie Wood about his recent journey to the birthplace of quantum mechanics, a German island in the North Sea. On Helgoland, Charlie asked physicists many questions about many worlds over many beers. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine. Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

When some people smell the molecule benzyl acetate, they identify a distinctly banana-y scent. But when others sniff the same compound, they get hints of nail polish remover. How can this be? Smell is a tricky sensory process to pin down. Our perception of scents is wide-ranging and often depends on lived experience. But researchers are building a deeper understanding of the processes underlying our noses’ elusive machinery.  In this episode, host Samir Patel and 𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢 biology staff writer Yasemin Saplakoglu explore the invisible sense that shapes our reality, from nostalgic childhood fragrances — lavender, old books — to familiar irksome odors — skunks, garbage. This topic was covered in a recent story for 𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘦. Each week on 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢 𝘗𝘰𝘥𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘵, 𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘦 editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

By screening films in a brain scanner, neuroscientists discovered a rich library of neural scripts — from a trip through an airport to a marriage proposal — that form scaffolds for memories of our experiences. The story How ‘Event Scripts’ Structure Our Personal Memories first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

The study of natural language processing, or NLP, dates back to the 1940s. It gave Stephen Hawking a voice, Siri a brain and social media companies another way to target us with ads. In less than five years, large language models broke NLP and made it anew. In 2019, Quanta reported on a then-groundbreaking NLP system called BERT without once using the phrase “large language model.” A mere five and a half years later, LLMs are everywhere, igniting discovery, disruption and debate in whatever scientific community they touch. But the one they touched first — for better, worse and everything in between — was natural language processing. What did that impact feel like to the people experiencing it firsthand? Recently, John Pavlus interviewed 19 current and former NLP researchers to tell that story. In this episode, Pavlus speaks with host and Quanta editor in chief Samir Patel about this oral history of “When ChatGPT Broke an Entire Field.” Each week on 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢 𝘗𝘰𝘥𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘵, 𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘦 editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda from LingoJam

As weird as it sounds, infinity comes in many shapes and sizes. And attempting to quantify it is sort of like a dog chasing its own tail. Or like infinities chasing infinities infinite numbers of times. But some mathematicians are obsessed with the quest. In this episode, host Samir Patel and 𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢 math editor Jordana Cepelewicz probe the bizarre edges of the mathematical universe, a realm *almost* impossible to put into words. This topic was covered by Greg Barber in a recent story for Quanta Magazine. Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Britta Späth has dedicated her career to proving a single, central conjecture. She’s finally succeeded, alongside her partner, Marc Cabanes. The story After 20 Years, Math Couple Solves Major Group Theory Problem first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

Colorful messages are constantly being exchanged across the natural world, to communicate everything from sexual attraction to self defense. But which came first: these evocative signals or the sophisticated vision needed to see them? In this episode, host Samir Patel speaks with contributing writer Molly Herring about free diving, mantis shrimp, and the challenges of tracking coloration through evolutionary history. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine. Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the minds behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Where does gravity come from? In both general relativity and quantum mechanics, this question is a big problem. One controversial theory proposes that the force arises from the universe's tendency toward disorder, or entropy. In this episode, host Samir Patel speaks with contributing writer George Musser about the long-shot idea called "entropic gravity," which Musser covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine. Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the minds behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda provided by Cosmic Perspective.

Emmy Noether showed that fundamental physical laws are just a consequence of simple symmetries. A century later, her insights continue to shape physics. The story How Noether’s Theorem Revolutionized Physics first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

The Busy Beaver Challenge, an open online collaboration, started in 2022 to finally solve a major problem in theoretical computer science. Over time, the online community grew to include more than 20 contributors from around the world, most of them without traditional academic credentials. In July 2024, the group announced that they finally solved the puzzle, bringing a conclusion to over 40 years of effort. On this week’s episode of The Quanta Podcast, computer science staff writer Ben Brubaker explains the tantalizing Busy Beaver puzzle, which he covered in depth last year, in "With Fifth Busy Beaver, Researchers Approach Computation’s Limits." Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the minds behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Turbulence is a notoriously difficult phenomenon to study. Mathematicians are now starting to untangle it at its smallest scales. This is the sixth episode of The Quanta Podcast. In each episode, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the minds behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Audio coda provided by Mount Washington Observatory

Individual cells in the brain light up for specific ideas. These concept neurons, once known as “Jennifer Aniston cells,” help us think, imagine and remember episodes from our lives. The story Concept Cells Help Your Brain Abstract Information and Build Memories first appeared on Quanta Magazine.