How does a cell know when it’s been damaged? A molecular alarm, set off by mutated RNA and colliding ribosomes, signals ...

Tony Tyson’s cameras revealed the universe’s dark contents. Now, with the Rubin Observatory’s 3.2-billion-pixel camera, he’s ...

An attack on a fundamental proof technique reveals a glaring security issue for blockchains and other digital encryption ...

After just a few months of work, a complete newcomer to the world of sphere packing has solved one of its biggest open problems.

A better understanding of human smell is emerging as scientists interrogate its fundamental elements: the odor molecules that ...

The precursors of heavy elements might arise in the plasma underbellies of swollen stars or in smoldering stellar corpses. They definitely exist in East Lansing, Michigan.

Quanta’s award-winning coverage of computational complexity, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, cryptography and more.

Two new notions of infinity challenge a long-standing plan to define the mathematical universe.

A new argument explores how the growth of disorder could cause massive objects to move toward one another. Physicists are both interested and skeptical.

Black hole and Big Bang singularities break our best theory of gravity. A trilogy of theorems hints that physicists must go to the ends of space and time to find a fix.

An exploration of how artificial intelligence is changing what it means to do science and math, and what it means to be a scientist.

Modern thinking machines owe their existence to insights from the physics of complex materials.