Neuroscientists probing the boundary between sleep and awareness are finding many types of liminal states, which help explain ...

The math of even the simplest ocean waves is notoriously uncooperative. A team of Italian mathematicians has made major ...

The amplituhedron, a shape at the heart of particle physics, appears to be deeply connected to the mathematics of paper ...

The same pulling force that causes “tears” in a glass of wine also shapes embryos. It’s another example of how genes exploit ...

The leading approach to the simplex method, a widely used technique for balancing complex logistical constraints, can’t get any better.

Anna Demming is a freelance science writer and editor based in Bristol, United Kingdom. She has a doctorate in physics from King’s College London, where her research focused on ...

Every Tuesday, editor in chief Samir Patel sits down with writers and editors to discuss our most thought-provoking stories in science and math. Audio editions of Quanta’s stories with Susan Valot ...

From Santiago Ramón y Cajal’s hand came branches and whorls, spines and webs. Now-famous drawings by the neuroanatomist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries showed, for the first time, the ...

Here’s a test for infants: Show them a glass of water on a desk. Hide it behind a wooden board. Now move the board toward the glass. If the board keeps going past the glass, as if it weren’t there, ...