#Quantamagazine

Astrophysicist Shep Doeleman explains how capturing the first image of a black hole required a telescope the size of the world, and why the next goal is to create a movie.

By probing its molecular structure, biologists are uncovering how a tangle of unstructured proteins turns into a strong, flexible fiber.

A new topological model connects a centuries-old voting paradox to a surface with no distinct inside or outside.

To invade red blood cells, the deadly protists create temporary molecular portals that disappear behind them — doors we can now see in fine detail.

A collision may have left these galaxies without dark matter. That spells trouble for alternative gravity theories.

Evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers explains how fungal networks in soil trade nutrients with plants, help keep carbon underground, and strike bargains without having a brain.

Moritz Hardt, author of a new book on benchmarks, believes these “standardized tests” for artificial intelligence are fundamentally broken — but not unfixable.

Unlike other recent AI proofs, this one has been unpacked by human experts. The implications, one mathematician said, are “staggering.”

Winning entries in the 2026 Nikon Small World competitions reveal the hidden interactions that govern everyday life.

Scientists have a history of trying — and failing — to link biology and quantum mechanics. The real connection between them may be in the math.

The biggest breakthrough in modern theoretical physics is the discovery that gravity can collapse the dimensions of space. Physicists don’t yet understand the implications.

Comb jellies are helping answer fundamental questions in biology, from how the earliest nervous systems evolved to how bioluminescence works.

The James Webb Space Telescope spots mysterious “little red dots” everywhere. A bold new theory suggests they’re suns dozens of times larger than our entire solar system.

The proof of a decades-old conjecture has given researchers a new way to understand complex networks.

His incompleteness theorems destroyed the search for a mathematical theory of everything. Nearly a century later, we’re still coming to grips with the consequences.

The math, which combines chaos, quantum theory, and infinitely complex fractal structures, has been called a “foundational result.”

A global constellation of neutrino detectors is creating a never-before-seen view of the radioactive elements that power Earth’s tectonic heat engine.

The idea that artificial intelligence can “reason” is more intuitive than ever. But intuitions can be wrong, and the science is far from settled.

New calculations seem to have put a 25-year-old particle physics puzzle to rest. But they’ve also created a clash with other experimental results.

Scientists built a synthetic cell that combines more lifelike properties than ever before — proof of concept that it’s possible to bring nonliving materials to life, or something close to it, in the lab.