Can the most abstract math make the world a better place?

Plus: What crystals older than the sun reveal about the solar system; New strides made on 'lonely runner' problem; New Quanta Podcast

Math and Science News from Quanta Magazine View this email in your browser QUALIA | ALL TOPICS   Can the Most Abstract Math Make the World a Better Place? By NATALIE WOLCHOVER Applied category theorists are hoping that their new mathematics can better capture the workings of Earth's climate. Read the article ASTRONOMY   What Crystals Older Than the Sun Reveal About the Start of the Solar System By JAMES DINNEEN Microscopic crystals extracted from meteorites could help settle a debate about the birth of our patch of the Milky Way. Read the article NUMBER THEORY   New Strides Made on Deceptively Simple 'Lonely Runner' Problem By PAULINA ROWIŃSKA A straightforward conjecture about runners moving around a track turns out to be equivalent to many complex mathematical questions. Read the article THE QUANTA PODCAST   The Infinite Heist - Part 1 Podcast hosted by SAMIR PATEL with JORDANA CEPELEWICZ How did the concept of infinity make the leap from a blasphemous idea to a foundational principle of modern mathematics? In the first part of a two-part episode, we set the scene at the dawn of modern math. Listen (Apple) | Listen (Spotify) Read the article Follow Quanta Unsubscribe | About Quanta | My Bookmarks Privacy Policy | Terms | Contact Us   Copyright © 2025 Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent division of the Simons Foundation Simons Foundation 160 5th Avenue, 7th Floor New York, NY 10010

Space & Physics: Conan the Bacterium conquers the solar system

Top stories in space and physics news                    

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March 5 — This week's top stories include astonishing new insights into "Conan the Bacterium," a tantalizing link between prime numbers and black holes, a bizarre "half-Möbius" molecule, the search for exomoons and exorings, and much, much more. Enjoy! Thoughts? Questions? Let me know via e-mail (lbillings@sciam.com), X or Bluesky. —Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Physical Sciences

Top Stories

'Conan the Bacterium' could really conquer the solar system, new study suggests New insights into a tiny, tough microbe have huge implications for the search for life beyond Earth Lee Billings

Are prime numbers hiding inside black holes? The strange case for prime numbers at the heart of physics Lyndie Chiou

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IBM scientists unveil the first ever "half-Möbius" molecule, with the help of quantum computing A team at IBM Research has assembled a strange new ring-shaped molecule that bends around like a more complicated Möbius strip Joseph Howlett

NASA scraps 2027 Artemis III moon landing in favor of 2028 mission The announcement that NASA will rejigger Artemis III not to land on the moon in 2027 came after the agency's Artemis II mission encountered problems, delaying its launch Claire Cameron

Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS captured speeding through the solar system by Jupiter-bound spacecraft This mysterious interstellar visitor is on a whirlwind journey through our solar system Jackie Flynn Mogensen

After four years of war, Ukrainian astronomy is battered but unbroken Russia's war has left many of Ukraine's world-class observatories in ruins—but the besieged nation's astronomers already have plans to rebuild and recover Paul M. Sutter

Why mathematicians hate Good Will Hunting This Oscar-winning classic set a surprisingly simple mathematical challenge Manon Bischoff

How far are we from finding exomoons and exorings? Although astronomers have found thousands of exoplanets, the number of confirmed exomoons—and exorings—is still zero. But that may soon change Phil Plait

NASA spots new signs of lightning on Mars Two NASA spacecraft—the MAVEN orbiter and the Perseverance rover—have now seen very different signals suggesting lightning on Mars Meghan Bartels

NASA unveils dazzling new images of the 'Cat's Eye Nebula' The space-based telescopes Hubble and Euclid combined forces to capture the vibrant remains of a dying star in stunning new detail Jackie Flynn Mogensen

The universe is filled with a cacophony of colliding black holes A new catalog of gravitational waves more than doubles the known number of these spacetime ripples Claire Cameron

Eerie brainlike nebula captured in stunning new JWST images Nebula PMR 1 looks uncannily similar to an electrified brain inside a semitransparent skull Claire Cameron

What We're Reading

Loophole found that makes quantum cloning possible | New Scientist Chimpanzees Are Really Into Crystals | The New York Times The U.S. Senate empowers NASA to fully engage in lunar space race | Ars Technica

From the Archive

The Race to Find Alien Moons Astronomers are hunting for the first moon around a planet beyond our solar system Rebecca Boyle

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