Year in Review – Quanta Magazine https://www.quantamagazine.org Illuminating science Mon, 16 Sep 2024 14:10:47 -0400 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2 The Year in Math https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-biggest-discoveries-in-math-in-2023-20231222/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-biggest-discoveries-in-math-in-2023-20231222/#respond Sat, 23 Dec 2023 01:33:58 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=132809 The post The Year in Math first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Mathematical truths are often born of the conflict between order and disorder. Mathematicians discover patterns, and, to better understand the mysterious forces at play, they look for countervailing impulses that disrupt those patterns. That tension came up repeatedly in our coverage this past year. We covered breakthroughs in graph theory, combinatorics, number theory and geometry — areas where...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-biggest-discoveries-in-math-in-2023-20231222/feed/ 0 The Year in Physics https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-biggest-discoveries-in-physics-in-2023-20231221/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-biggest-discoveries-in-physics-in-2023-20231221/#respond Thu, 21 Dec 2023 21:06:38 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=132721 The post The Year in Physics first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> By one metric, this year’s biggest physics news happened 80 years ago. Yet while the success of a movie about the making of the atomic bomb was a surprise, the discoveries coming out of actual physics laboratories — including the grandest laboratory of them all, the universe itself — were no less impressive than the surge in interest about J. Robert Oppenheimer. The James Webb Space Telescope...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-biggest-discoveries-in-physics-in-2023-20231221/feed/ 0 The Year in Computer Science https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-biggest-discoveries-in-computer-science-in-2023-20231220/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-biggest-discoveries-in-computer-science-in-2023-20231220/#respond Wed, 20 Dec 2023 19:11:09 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=133277 The post The Year in Computer Science first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> In 2023, artificial intelligence dominated popular culture — showing up in everything from internet memes to Senate hearings. Large language models such as those behind ChatGPT fueled a lot of this excitement, even as researchers still struggled to pry open the “black box” that describes their inner workings. Image generation systems also routinely impressed and unsettled us with their artistic...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-biggest-discoveries-in-computer-science-in-2023-20231220/feed/ 0 The Year in Biology https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-biggest-discoveries-in-biology-in-2023-20231219/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-biggest-discoveries-in-biology-in-2023-20231219/#respond Tue, 19 Dec 2023 19:13:40 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=133073 The post The Year in Biology first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Revolutions in the biological sciences can take many forms. Sometimes they erupt from the use of a novel tool or the invention of a radical theory that suddenly opens so many new avenues for research, it can feel dizzying. Sometimes they take shape slowly, through the slow accumulation of studies, each one representing years of painstaking work, that collectively chip away at the prevailing wisdom...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-biggest-discoveries-in-biology-in-2023-20231219/feed/ 0 The Year in Comments https://www.quantamagazine.org/thoughtful-and-funny-feedback-from-quantas-audience-in-2022-20221222/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/thoughtful-and-funny-feedback-from-quantas-audience-in-2022-20221222/#respond Thu, 22 Dec 2022 17:00:13 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=121394 The post The Year in Comments first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Every Quanta article, video and podcast has its own backstory. By the time it arrives on your screen, our staff has nurtured it through weeks (and sometimes months) of careful work: research, reporting, writing, editing, art direction, animation, filming, recording, fact-checking, copy editing and web production. Then it’s my turn. My job is to engage with Quanta’s audience and facilitate...

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