Category: Quantum Stuff

Large language models work well because they’re so large. The latest models from OpenAI, Meta and DeepSeek use hundreds of billions of “parameters” — the adjustable knobs that determine connections among data and get tweaked during the training process. With more parameters, the models are better able to identify patterns and connections, which in turn… Continue reading Why Do Researchers Care About Small Language Models?

February 14, 2025 2 min read Men Actually Crave Romantic Relationships More Than Women Do Multiple-study analysis looks at why men’s emotional intimacy is much more difficult outside of romantic relationships By Clarissa Brincat edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier Research explores why men seem to find romantic relationships more important than women do. Thomas Barwick/Getty… Continue reading Men Actually Crave Romantic Relationships More Than Women Do

[CLIP: Theme music] Rachel Feltman: Happy Valentine’s Day, listeners! For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. For many people today is all about scrambling to get last-minute dinner reservations and spending lots of money—I mean, uh, showing your significant other how much you care about them. On supporting science journalism If you’re enjoying this… Continue reading Why Friendships Matter More Than You Think

The biological world is awash in chemical signals. Ants lead their nest mates to food with winding trails of pheromones, plants exude aerosols to warn their neighbors of herbivores, and everything you experience as “smell” is a molecule latching onto your nose. Some molecular messages find their targets; most linger unread in the environment. But… Continue reading A New, Chemical View of Ecosystems

I remember once going to a restaurant and, being pretty hungry, ordering the biggest burger on their menu. I grossly overestimated my appetite; what arrived at my table was a ridiculously huge slab of meat, almost impossible for me to finish. Still, it was a lot smaller than HH 30, a cosmic “hamburger” billions of… Continue reading JWST Spies a Giant Space Hamburger—and Maybe Planetary Origins, Too

Physics dazzled Miles Cranmer from an early age. His grandfather, a physics professor at the University of Toronto, gave him books on the subject, and his parents took him to open houses at universities near their home in southern Ontario, Canada. The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics was a favorite. “I remember someone talking about… Continue reading The Physicist Working to Build Science-Literate AI

But using Mirzakhani’s limited formula, Monk and Anantharaman saw a way to prove a relatively large spectral gap. “It looked almost like a miracle,” Anantharaman said. “It’s still quite mysterious to me that it works so well.” What if she and Monk could sharpen Mirzakhani’s formula to count the more complicated geodesics, too? Perhaps they… Continue reading Years After the Early Death of a Math Genius, Her Ideas Gain New Life

Our brains are full of plastic. This was the fun news I read earlier this week while picking up dinner take-out, packed in plastic containers, crammed in a plastic bag and accompanied by Styrofoam cups. Great, I thought, convenience culture is killing us. But is it? This is the problem with the slew of research… Continue reading Why Aren’t We Losing Our Minds Over the Plastic in Our Brains?

February 14, 2025 3 min read How Do You Cook a Perfect Egg? Scientists Have Figured It Out Materials scientists have found a way to perfectly cook an egg white and egg yolk simultaneously By Arminda Downey-Mavromatis edited by Andrea Thompson Hard-boiling, soft-boiling or using a trendy sous vide—no matter the approach, cooking a whole… Continue reading This Method of Cooking a Perfect Egg Sounds Absurd, But Scientists Swear Its Worth It