Search Results for “evolution” – 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 Can Thermodynamics Go Quantum? https://www.quantamagazine.org/can-thermodynamics-go-quantum-20240912/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/can-thermodynamics-go-quantum-20240912/#respond Thu, 12 Sep 2024 13:43:17 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=140647 The post Can Thermodynamics Go Quantum? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> The principles of thermodynamics are cornerstones of our understanding of physics. But they were discovered in the era of steam-driven technology, long before anyone dreamed of quantum mechanics. In this episode, the theoretical physicist Nicole Yunger Halpern talks to host Steven Strogatz about how physicists today are reinterpreting concepts such as work, energy and information for a quantum...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/can-thermodynamics-go-quantum-20240912/feed/ 0 The Viral Paleontologist Who Unearths Pathogens’ Deep Histories https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-viral-paleontologist-who-unearths-pathogens-deep-histories-20240816/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-viral-paleontologist-who-unearths-pathogens-deep-histories-20240816/#respond Fri, 16 Aug 2024 13:06:13 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=139856 The post The Viral Paleontologist Who Unearths Pathogens’ Deep Histories first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Like many children of his generation, raised on a steady diet of Jurassic Park and its sequels, Sébastien Calvignac-Spencer wanted to be a paleontologist when he grew up. Unlike most, he came close. Rather than digging for fossilized bones in the dirt, however, he paws through objects in natural history museums and medical collections for old biological specimens from which he can extract the...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-viral-paleontologist-who-unearths-pathogens-deep-histories-20240816/feed/ 0 How AI Revolutionized Protein Science, but Didn’t End It https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-ai-revolutionized-protein-science-but-didnt-end-it-20240626/ Wed, 26 Jun 2024 14:23:51 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=138623 The post How AI Revolutionized Protein Science, but Didn’t End It first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> In December 2020, when pandemic lockdowns made in-person meetings impossible, hundreds of computational scientists gathered in front of their screens to watch a new era of science unfold. They were assembled for a conference, a friendly competition some of them had attended in person for almost three decades where they could all get together and obsess over the same question. Known as the protein...

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]]> The Brainstem Fine-Tunes Inflammation Throughout the Body https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-brainstem-fine-tunes-inflammation-throughout-the-body-20240614/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-brainstem-fine-tunes-inflammation-throughout-the-body-20240614/#respond Fri, 14 Jun 2024 13:47:54 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=134492 The post The Brainstem Fine-Tunes Inflammation Throughout the Body first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Last month, researchers discovered cells in the brainstem that regulate inflammation throughout the body. In response to an injury, these nerve cells not only sense inflammatory molecules, but also dial their circulating levels up and down to keep infections from harming healthy tissues. The discovery adds control of the immune system to the brainstem’s core functions — a list that also includes...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-brainstem-fine-tunes-inflammation-throughout-the-body-20240614/feed/ 0 How Is Flocking Like Computing? https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-is-flocking-like-computing-20240328/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-is-flocking-like-computing-20240328/#respond Thu, 28 Mar 2024 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=136659 The post How Is Flocking Like Computing? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Birds flock. Locusts swarm. Fish school. Within assemblies of organisms that seem as though they could get chaotic, order somehow emerges. The collective behaviors of animals differ in their details from one species to another, but they largely adhere to principles of collective motion that physicists have worked out over centuries. Now, using technologies that only recently became available...

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