Animals Count and Use Zero.

 How Far Does Their Number Sense Go? | 

Math and Science News from Quanta Magazine View this email in your browser COGNITIVE SCIENCE | ALL TOPICS   Animals Count and Use Zero. How Far Does Their Number Sense Go? By JORDANA CEPELEWICZ Crows recently demonstrated an understanding of the concept of zero. It's only the latest evidence of animals' talents for numerical abstraction — which may still differ from our own grasp of numbers. Read the article CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS   Physicists Create a Bizarre 'Wigner Crystal' Made Purely of Electrons By KARMELA PADAVIC-CALLAGHAN The unambiguous discovery of a Wigner crystal relied on a novel technique for probing the insides of complex materials. Read the blog Related:  Eternal Change for No Energy: A Time Crystal Finally Made Real by Natalie Wolchover QUANTIZED COLUMNS   How Steven Weinberg Transformed Physics and Physicists By NIMA ARKANI-HAMED When the theoretical physicist Steven Weinberg died last month, the world lost one of its most profound thinkers. Read the column Related:  The Mystery at the Heart of Physics That Only Math Can Solve by Kevin Hartnett PATTERNS   Turing Patterns Turn Up in a Tiny Crystal By ELENA RENKEN The mechanism behind leopard spots and zebra stripes also appears to explain the patterned growth of a bismuth crystal, extending Alan Turing's 1952 idea to the atomic scale. Read the blog Related:  Ancient Turing Pattern Builds Feathers, Hair — and Now, Shark Skin by Jonathan Lambert (2019) Around the Web Fours of Nature Physicists have discovered a new particle made of four quarks — the most stable member of the "tetraquark" family yet, Jennifer Ouellette reports for Ars Technica. Physicists still aren't sure how nature assembles tetraquarks. They could be true quartets, or they might be doubled-up quark pairs, Natalie Wolchover reported for Quanta after the first tetraquark was confirmed in 2014.   Keep an Open Mind Our intellect extends far beyond what's between our ears. Sticky notes and smartphones supplement our memories, while walking and gesticulating may help us think, as Annie Murphy Paul writes in her new book, reviewed by Nature. We humans may not be alone in using our surroundings as aids to our cogitation: Spiders may weave information into their webs, Josh Sokol reported for Quanta in 2017. Follow Quanta Simons Foundation 160 5th Avenue, 7th Floor New York, NY 10010 Unsubscribe | About Quanta Privacy Policy | Terms | Contact Us   Copyright © 2021 Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent division of the Simons Foundation