Quanta

With the help of deep learning techniques, paleoanthropologists find evidence of long-lost branches on the human family tree

Neural networks can be as unpredictable as they are powerful. Now mathematicians are beginning to reveal how a neural network’s form will influence its function.

Perfect black holes are versatile mathematical tools. Just don’t mistake them for the real thing.

An analysis of lunar craters has found that we’ve been living in a relatively violent period in cosmic history.

Astronomers couldn’t find enough satellite galaxies orbiting the Milky Way. Now they have the opposite problem, suggesting that our understanding of how galaxies get built is incomplete.

Dark matter may occasionally interact with minerals in the earth, leaving telltale tracks that physicists hope to decipher.

The same codes needed to thwart errors in quantum computers may also give the fabric of space-time its intrinsic robustness. 6

In a Paris lab, researchers have shown for the first time that quantum methods of transmitting information are superior to classical ones.

Equations, like numbers, cannot always be split into simpler elements. Researchers have now proved that such “prime” equations become ubiquitous as equations grow larger.