Eugenio Calabi was known to his colleagues as an inventive mathematician — “transformatively original,” as his former student Xiuxiong Chen put it. In 1953, Calabi began to contemplate a class of shapes that nobody had ever envisioned before. Other mathematicians thought their existence was impossible. But a couple of decades later, these same shapes became… Continue reading The Mathematician Who Shaped String Theory
Category: Quantum Stuff
Thirty Years Later, a Speed Boost for Quantum Factoring
Finding Factors Quantum computers derive their power from the peculiar way they process information. Classical computers use bits, each of which must always be in one of two states, labeled 0 and 1. Quantum bits, or “qubits,” can additionally be in combinations of their 0 and 1 states — a phenomenon called superposition. It’s also… Continue reading Thirty Years Later, a Speed Boost for Quantum Factoring
These Cells Spark Electricity in the Brain. They’re Not Neurons.
A brain is nothing if not communicative. Neurons are the chatterboxes of this conversational organ, and they speak with one another by exchanging pulses of electricity using chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. By repeating this process billions of times per second, a brain converts clusters of chemicals into coordinated actions, memories and thoughts. Researchers study how… Continue reading These Cells Spark Electricity in the Brain. They’re Not Neurons.
Bed Bugs and Influencers Spark Pest Panic in Paris. Here’s What You Need to Know
It was hard to miss the dire headlines: bed bugs were reportedly all over Paris during the city’s Fashion Week, from the metro to a high-end restaurant. As fashionistas made their way home—and in light of the fact that Paris has been preparing to host the Olympics next summer—people asked, why did this happen all… Continue reading Bed Bugs and Influencers Spark Pest Panic in Paris. Here’s What You Need to Know
The Quest to Quantify Quantumness
In other words, he showed that an entanglement-free quantum circuit was easy to simulate on a classical computer. In a computational sense, the circuit wasn’t intrinsically quantum. The collection of all such non-entangling circuits (or, equivalently, all arrangements of qubits that might come out of these non-entangling circuits) formed something of a classically simulable island… Continue reading The Quest to Quantify Quantumness
Climate Change Is Making Saltwater Intrusion Worse in Coastal Areas
The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. Seawater intrusion is the movement of saline water from the ocean or estuaries into freshwater systems. The seawater that has crept up the Mississippi River in the summer and early fall of 2023 is a reminder that coastal communities teeter… Continue reading Climate Change Is Making Saltwater Intrusion Worse in Coastal Areas
Scientists Argue Conservation Is under Threat in Indonesia
Christopher Intagliata: For Science, Quickly, I’m Christopher Intagliata. Indonesia’s more than 17,000 islands contain the largest expanse of tropical rain forest in Southeast Asia. And they’re teeming with biodiversity. [CLIP: Sound of hiking through the jungle] Erik Meijaard: These forests are just incredibly rich. Intagliata: Conservation scientist Erik Meijaard has worked for more than three… Continue reading Scientists Argue Conservation Is under Threat in Indonesia
NASA’s Psyche Mission Launches to Mysterious Metallic Asteroid
Deep in the asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter, lies a strange, metal-rich asteroid unlike anything anyone has ever seen before. Dubbed Psyche, the unique object may offer investigators a truly alien landscape to explore—one that could yield new insights about the origin of our solar system and perhaps even about Earth’s most remote region:… Continue reading NASA’s Psyche Mission Launches to Mysterious Metallic Asteroid
Climate Misinformation Persists in New Middle School Textbooks
Scientists have found no evidence that natural forces have contributed to our planet’s current global warming problem, but a middle school student reading a crisp new book from the nation’s top science textbook publisher might think otherwise. “Due to both human and natural activities,” the child would read, “the amount of carbon dioxide in the… Continue reading Climate Misinformation Persists in New Middle School Textbooks
Fossilized Molecules Reveal a Lost World of Ancient Life
At first, the stem group may have had an advantage. Oxygen levels in the atmosphere were significantly lower than they are today. Because building protosterols requires less oxygen and energy than modern sterols require, stem-group eukaryotes were likely more successful and abundant. Their influence declined when the world hit a critical transition known as the… Continue reading Fossilized Molecules Reveal a Lost World of Ancient Life