Hypothetical devices that can quickly and accurately answer questions have become a powerful tool in computational complexity theory.

Evolution was fueled by endosymbiosis, cellular alliances in which one microbe makes a permanent home inside another. For the ...

Researchers got a better look at the thoughts of chatbots, amateurs learned exactly how complicated simple systems can be, and quantum computers passed an essential milestone. The end of 2024 seems a ...

Landmark results in geometry and number theory marked an exciting year for mathematics, at a time when advances in artificial intelligence are starting to transform the subject’s future. The Quanta ...

We investigate three of 2024’s biggest breakthroughs in mathematics, including a better way to pack spheres in high dimensions, a new way to avoid forming patterns of numbers, and an 800-page proof of ...

To better understand machine learning algorithms, Lenka Zdeborová treats them like physical materials.

Computer scientist Lance Fortnow writes that by embracing the computations that surround us, we can begin to understand and tame our seemingly random world.

In the search for the most scalable hardware to use for quantum computers, qubits made of individual atoms are having a breakout moment. Teleporting people through space is still science fiction. But ...

Three years ago, Google’s AlphaFold pulled off the biggest artificial intelligence breakthrough in science to date, accelerating molecular research and kindling deep questions about why we do science.

Researchers got a better look at the thoughts of chatbots, amateurs learned exactly how complicated simple systems can be, and quantum computers passed an essential milestone. Three new species of ...

The moons orbiting Jupiter and Saturn appear to have subsurface oceans — tantalizing targets in the search for life beyond Earth. But it’s not clear why these seas exist at all.