The Vacuum of Space Will Decay Sooner Than Expected
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Vacuum decay, a process that could end the universe as we know it, may happen 10,000 times sooner than expected. …
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The Physics of Cold Water May Have Jump-Started Complex Life
After 30 days, the algae in the middle were still unicellular. As the scientists put algae from thicker and thicker rings under the microscope, however, they found larger clumps of …
The Puzzle of How Large-Scale Order Emerges in Complex Systems
A complex system exhibits emergence, according to the new framework, by organizing itself into a hierarchy of levels that each operate independently of the details of the lower levels. The …
What Came Before the Big Bang?
Robert Brandenberger, a physicist at McGill University who was not involved with the study, said the new paper “sets a new standard of rigor for the analysis” of the mathematics …
Light-Based Chips Could Help Slake AI’s Ever-Growing Thirst for Energy
“What we have here is something incredibly simple,” said Tianwei Wu, the study’s lead author. “We can reprogram it, changing the laser patterns on the fly.” The researchers used the …
How Game Theory Can Make AI More Reliable
Posing a far greater challenge for AI researchers was the game of Diplomacy—a favorite of politicians like John F. Kennedy and Henry Kissinger. Instead of just two opponents, the game …
The Hunt for Ultralight Dark Matter
If or when SLAC’s planned project, the Light Dark Matter Experiment (LDMX), receives funding—a decision from the Department of Energy is expected in the next year or so—it will scan …
Does String Theory Actually Describe the World? AI May Be Able to Tell
A group led by string theory veterans Burt Ovrut of the University of Pennsylvania and Andre Lukas of Oxford went further. They too started with Ruehle’s metric-calculating software, which Lukas …
The Complex Social Lives of Viruses
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Ever since viruses came to light in the late 1800s, scientists have set them apart from the rest of life. …
NASA’s Quest to Touch the Sun
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Our sun is the best-observed star in the entire universe. We see its light every day. For centuries, scientists have …