complex systems – 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 Physicists Pinpoint the Quantum Origin of the Greenhouse Effect https://www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-pinpoint-the-quantum-origin-of-the-greenhouse-effect-20240807/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-pinpoint-the-quantum-origin-of-the-greenhouse-effect-20240807/#respond Wed, 07 Aug 2024 14:25:32 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=139592 The post Physicists Pinpoint the Quantum Origin of the Greenhouse Effect first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> In 1896, the Swedish physicist Svante Arrhenius realized that carbon dioxide (CO2) traps heat in Earth’s atmosphere — the phenomenon now called the greenhouse effect. Since then, increasingly sophisticated modern climate models have verified Arrhenius’ central conclusion: that every time the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere doubles, Earth’s temperature will rise between 2 and 5 degrees Celsius.

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-pinpoint-the-quantum-origin-of-the-greenhouse-effect-20240807/feed/ 0 The New Math of How Large-Scale Order Emerges https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-new-math-of-how-large-scale-order-emerges-20240610/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-new-math-of-how-large-scale-order-emerges-20240610/#respond Mon, 10 Jun 2024 14:50:02 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=138428 The post The New Math of How Large-Scale Order Emerges first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> A few centuries ago, the swirling polychromatic chaos of Jupiter’s atmosphere spawned the immense vortex that we call the Great Red Spot. From the frantic firing of billions of neurons in your brain comes your unique and coherent experience of reading these words. As pedestrians each try to weave their path on a crowded sidewalk, they begin to follow one another, forming streams that no one...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-new-math-of-how-large-scale-order-emerges-20240610/feed/ 0 ‘Entropy Bagels’ and Other Complex Structures Emerge From Simple Rules https://www.quantamagazine.org/entropy-bagels-and-other-complex-structures-emerge-from-simple-rules-20240227/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/entropy-bagels-and-other-complex-structures-emerge-from-simple-rules-20240227/#respond Tue, 27 Feb 2024 15:49:38 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=135768 The post ‘Entropy Bagels’ and Other Complex Structures Emerge From Simple Rules first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Repetition doesn’t always have to be humdrum. In mathematics, it is a powerful force, capable of generating bewildering complexity. Even after decades of study, mathematicians find themselves unable to answer questions about the repeated execution of very simple rules — the most basic “dynamical systems.” But in trying to do so, they have uncovered deep connections between those rules and other...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/entropy-bagels-and-other-complex-structures-emerge-from-simple-rules-20240227/feed/ 0 The Quest to Decode the Mandelbrot Set, Math’s Famed Fractal https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-quest-to-decode-the-mandelbrot-set-maths-famed-fractal-20240126/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-quest-to-decode-the-mandelbrot-set-maths-famed-fractal-20240126/#respond Fri, 26 Jan 2024 16:46:49 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=134276 The post The Quest to Decode the Mandelbrot Set, Math’s Famed Fractal first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> In the mid-1980s, like Walkman cassette players and tie-dyed shirts, the buglike silhouette of the Mandelbrot set was everywhere. Students plastered it to dorm room walls around the world. Mathematicians received hundreds of letters, eager requests for printouts of the set. (In response, some of them produced catalogs, complete with price lists; others compiled its most striking features into...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-quest-to-decode-the-mandelbrot-set-maths-famed-fractal-20240126/feed/ 0 New Proof Finds the ‘Ultimate Instability’ in a Solar System Model https://www.quantamagazine.org/new-math-shows-when-solar-systems-become-unstable-20230516/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/new-math-shows-when-solar-systems-become-unstable-20230516/#respond Tue, 16 May 2023 14:05:08 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=125953 The post New Proof Finds the ‘Ultimate Instability’ in a Solar System Model first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> In 2009, a pair of astronomers at the Paris Observatory announced a startling discovery. After building a detailed computational model of our solar system, they ran thousands of numerical simulations, projecting the motions of the planets billions of years into the future. In most of those simulations — which varied Mercury’s starting point over a range of just under 1 meter — everything proceeded...

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