essays – 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 Computation Is All Around Us, and You Can See It if You Try https://www.quantamagazine.org/computation-is-all-around-us-and-you-can-see-it-if-you-try-20240612/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/computation-is-all-around-us-and-you-can-see-it-if-you-try-20240612/#respond Wed, 12 Jun 2024 13:26:12 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=138467 The post Computation Is All Around Us, and You Can See It if You Try first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> In the movie Oppenheimer, Niels Bohr challenges the physicist early in his career: I can’t hear the algebra, but I feel the machine. I felt the machine even before I touched a computer. In the 1970s I awaited the arrival of my first one, a Radio Shack TRS-80, imagining how it would function. I wrote some simple programs on paper and could feel the machine I didn’t yet have processing each step.

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/computation-is-all-around-us-and-you-can-see-it-if-you-try-20240612/feed/ 0 How a NASA Probe Solved a Scorching Solar Mystery https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-a-nasa-probe-solved-a-scorching-solar-mystery-20240429/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-a-nasa-probe-solved-a-scorching-solar-mystery-20240429/#respond Mon, 29 Apr 2024 13:49:26 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=137582 The post How a NASA Probe Solved a Scorching Solar Mystery first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Our sun is the best-observed star in the entire universe. We see its light every day. For centuries, scientists have tracked the dark spots dappling its radiant face, while in recent decades, telescopes in space and on Earth have scrutinized sunbeams in wavelengths spanning the electromagnetic spectrum. Experiments have also sniffed the sun’s atmosphere, captured puffs of the solar wind...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-a-nasa-probe-solved-a-scorching-solar-mystery-20240429/feed/ 0 The New Quest to Control Evolution https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-new-quest-to-control-evolution-20231129/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-new-quest-to-control-evolution-20231129/#respond Wed, 29 Nov 2023 15:17:36 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=132703 The post The New Quest to Control Evolution first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Evolution is a complicated thing. Much of modern evolutionary biology seeks to reconcile the seeming randomness of the forces behind the process — how mutations occur, for example — with the fundamental principles that apply across the biosphere. Generations of biologists have hoped to comprehend evolution’s rhyme and reason enough to be able to predict how it happens. But while prediction remains...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-new-quest-to-control-evolution-20231129/feed/ 0 A Brief History of Tricky Mathematical Tiling https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-brief-history-of-tricky-mathematical-tiling-20231030/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-brief-history-of-tricky-mathematical-tiling-20231030/#respond Mon, 30 Oct 2023 14:31:17 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=131732 The post A Brief History of Tricky Mathematical Tiling first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Every day we see examples of repeating motifs. This symmetry and regularity can seem mundane and almost invisible, as with brickwork on building walls or the hexagonal pattern in a honeycomb. Or if we’re lucky enough to encounter something like the elegant tile work in Spain’s Alhambra or M.C. Escher’s creative drawings, the patterns can inspire and amaze us. For centuries...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-brief-history-of-tricky-mathematical-tiling-20231030/feed/ 0 How Genetic Surprises Complicate the Old Doctrine of DNA https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-genetic-surprises-complicate-the-old-doctrine-of-dna-20230731/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-genetic-surprises-complicate-the-old-doctrine-of-dna-20230731/#respond Mon, 31 Jul 2023 14:39:31 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=128423 The post How Genetic Surprises Complicate the Old Doctrine of DNA first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Does an unseen force lurk within genetics? Biologists have made enormous strides over the past 100 years in understanding the role of the millions of parcels that convey our genetic information — DNA, RNA and proteins. But they have also learned about undetectable interactions between these biochemical agents, hiding in their midst like ghosts in the machine, complicating our quest to learn the...

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