Quanta

A recent challenge to Stephen Hawking’s biggest idea — about how the universe might have come from nothing — has cosmologists choosing sides.

Immunologists confirm an old hunch: T-cells identify what belongs in the body by timing how long they can bind to it.

Surviving fragments of genetic material preserved in sediments allow metagenomics researchers to see the full diversity of past life — even microbes.

A new theoretical model may help explain the shocking onset of superconductivity in stacked, twisted carbon sheets.

The universe of problems that a computer can check has grown. The researchers’ secret ingredient? Quantum entanglement.

Two women programmers played a pivotal role in the birth of chaos theory. Their previously untold story illustrates the changing status of computation in science.

Mathematicians used “magic functions” to prove that two highly symmetric lattices solve a myriad of problems in eight- and 24-dimensional space.

A new experiment confirms the existence of “superionic ice,” a bizarre form of water that might comprise the bulk of giant icy planets throughout the universe.

Your expectations shape and quicken your perceptions. A new model that explains the effect suggests it’s time to update theories about sensory processing.