Quanta

Odd enough to potentially model the strangeness of the physical world, complex numbers with “imaginary” components are rooted in the familiar.

In a major mathematical achievement, a small team of researchers has proven Zimmer’s conjecture.

The idea that the universe splits into multiple realities with every measurement has become an increasingly popular proposed solution to the mysteries of quantum mechanics. But this “many-worlds interpretation” is incoherent, Philip Ball argues in this adapted excerpt from his new book Beyond Weird.

Oil droplets guided by “pilot waves” have failed to reproduce the results of the quantum double-slit experiment, crushing a century-old dream that there exists a single, concrete reality.

The mystery of ’Oumuamua, the first interstellar object ever observed, continues to deepen. A new analysis argues that if it were a comet, it would have broken apart as it passed near the sun.

Like a car that’s twice as heavy as the steel that went into it, exoplanets are far more massive than the material that they’re built out of. The new finding is challenging established theories of how planets come to be. 3

The availability of new genomes for 16 diverse strains of laboratory mice will help accelerate research into the genetic underpinnings of human traits and diseases.

By measuring mechanical forces inside an embryo for the first time, researchers have shown how a physical “jamming” mechanism assists development.

Two mathematicians have found what they say is a hole at the heart of a proof that has convulsed the mathematics community for nearly six years.