Echoes of Electromagnetism Found in Numb...

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 ... Show More

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 ‘ ... Show More

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 ... Show More

Magnets are inside loads of everyday electronic kit - speakers, motors, phones and more - but listener Lucas is mystified. What, he wonders, is a magnetic field?Our sleuths set out to investigate the mysterious power of magnets, with the help of wizard physicist Dr Felix Flicker, ... Show More

When some massive stars go supernova, they then collapse into magnetars -- the most powerful magnetic objects in the known universe. Learn more in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/magnetars.htm Learn more about your ad-choices a ... Show More

Daniel and Katie bushwack their way between theories of gravity and electromagnetism, looking for the elusive connection.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

<p><span style="font-weight: 400">Quantum field theory may be the most successful scientific theory of all time, predicting  experimental results with stunning accuracy and advancing the study of higher dimensional mathematics. Yet, there’s also reason to believe that it is missi ... Show More

Dr Chris Smith and the Naked Scientist team present the latest science news, analysis and breakthroughs.In today’s programme: A breakthrough in nuclear fusion: what’s happened and what does this mean in practical terms? A new way to stop your glasses fogging up during this cold s ... Show More

The secret to making a qubit for future quantum computers might depend on knowing how to tie knots in unusual materials, argues the physicist Charlie Marcus. The post Charlie Marcus Knows That Quantum Facts Aren’t Complicated first appeared on Quanta Magazine 

There is a bizarre number in maths referred to simply as ‘i’. It appears to break the rules of arithmetic - but turns out to be utterly essential for applications across engineering and physics. We are talking about the square root of -1, which makes no sense.Professor Fry waxes ... Show More

<p><span style="font-weight: 400">We tend to think of mathematics as purely logical, but the teaching of math, its usefulness and its workings are packed with nuance. So what is “good” mathematics? In 2007, the mathematician Terence Tao wrote an essay for the “Bulletin of the Ame ... Show More