Quanta MagazineScience, Physics
Quanta MagazineScience, Physics

About

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

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Echoes of Electromagnetism Found in Number Theory
    Physics is a rich well of inspiration for mathematicians to draw from.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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?
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • JWST Spots Giant Black Holes All Over the Early Universe
    There's never been a more exciting time to study black holes.
  • 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.
  • Chatbots Don't Know What Stuff Isn't
    Researchers still don't understand whether machines will ever truly know the word "no."
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Gene Expression in Neurons Solves a Brain Evolution Puzzle
    Our brains have even less in common with reptile brains than was once thought.