Quanta

A bold new idea aims to link two famously discordant descriptions of nature. In doing so, it may also reveal how space-time owes its existence to the spooky connections of quantum information.

The computer scientist Stuart Russell wants to ensure that our increasingly intelligent machines remain aligned with human values.

A mathematician who has analyzed card shuffling for decades is tackling one final nemesis: “smooshing.”

A collaboration between mechanical engineers and mathematicians has revealed universal rules for how wrinkles form.

Two years ago, Yitang Zhang was virtually unknown. Now his surprise solution to a major problem in number theory has catapulted him to mathematical stardom. Where does he go from here?

Is dark energy a cosmic chameleon that can fade into its surroundings? A recent test brings the mysterious anti-gravitational force down to earth.

The comb jelly, a primitive marine creature, is forcing scientists to rethink how animals got their start.

A penguin-shaped anomaly first detected two years ago has survived a comprehensive new analysis of data from the first run of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

In 1978, the mathematician John McKay noticed what seemed like an odd coincidence. He had been studying the different ways of representing the structure of a mysterious entity called the monster group, a gargantuan algebraic object that, mathematicians believed, captured a new kind of symmetry. Mathematicians weren’t sure that the monster group actually existed, but they…