How does a cell know when it’s been damaged? A molecular alarm, set off by mutated RNA and colliding ribosomes, signals ...

Tony Tyson’s cameras revealed the universe’s dark contents. Now, with the Rubin Observatory’s 3.2-billion-pixel camera, he’s ...

After just a few months of work, a complete newcomer to the world of sphere packing has solved one of its biggest open ...

A better understanding of human smell is emerging as scientists interrogate its fundamental elements: the odor molecules that ...

Quanta’s award-winning coverage of computational complexity, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, cryptography and more.

Erica Klarreich has been writing about mathematics and science for more than 15 years. She has a doctorate in mathematics from Stony Brook University and is a graduate of the Science Communication… ...

An attack on a fundamental proof technique reveals a glaring security issue for blockchains and other digital encryption ...

The precursors of heavy elements might arise in the plasma underbellies of swollen stars or in smoldering stellar corpses.

A new argument explores how the growth of disorder could cause massive objects to move toward one another. Physicists are both interested and skeptical.