To see how one cube can pass through another, imagine holding a cube over a table and examining its shadow (assuming it’s ...

The recent paper studies algorithmic pricing through the lens of game theory, an interdisciplinary field at the border of ...

The uniquely vulnerable West Antarctic Ice Sheet holds enough water to raise global sea levels by 5 meters. But when that ...

Neuroscientists probing the boundary between sleep and awareness are finding many types of liminal states, which help explain ...

The math of even the simplest ocean waves is notoriously uncooperative. A team of Italian mathematicians has made major ...

The leading approach to the simplex method, a widely used technique for balancing complex logistical constraints, can’t get any better.

The same pulling force that causes “tears” in a glass of wine also shapes embryos. It’s another example of how genes exploit ...

The amplituhedron is a geometric shape with an almost mystical quality: Compute its volume, and you get the answer to a central calculation in physics about how particles interact. Now, a young ...

The Earth’s atmosphere is nothing but freely roaming molecules. Left alone, they would drift and collide, and eventually even out into a mixture that’s dynamic, yet stable and broadly unchanging. The ...

Climate science is the most significant scientific collaboration in history. This series from Quanta Magazine guides you through basic climate science — from quantum effects to ancient hothouses, from ...

An updated evolutionary model shows that living systems evolve in a split-and-hit-the-gas dynamic, where new lineages appear in sudden bursts rather than during a long marathon of gradual changes.