Plus: Multicellularity in ocean bacteria; Why mathematicians study knots; An interview with Svetlana Jitomirskaya

Math and Science News from Quanta Magazine View this email in your browser ASTROBIOLOGY | ALL TOPICS   A Dream of Discovering Alien Life Finds New Hope By JOSHUA SOKOL For Lisa Kaltenegger and her generation of exoplanet astronomers, decades of planning have set the stage for an epochal detection. Read the article MICROBIOLOGY   Ocean Bacteria Reveal an Unexpected Multicellular Form By CARRIE ARNOLD Marine bacteria normally seen as single cells join together as a "microscopic snow globe" to consume bulky floating carbohydrates. Read the blog Related:  Single Cells Evolve Large Multicellular Forms in Just Two Years by Veronique Greenwood (2021) GEOMETRY   Why Mathematicians Study Knots By DAVID S. RICHESON Knot theory began as a way to explain the fundamental makeup of the physical world. Today, it's applied in fields including fluid dynamics, electrodynamics and genetics. Read the column Related:  Untangling Why Knots Are Important From The Joy of Why podcast Q&A   A Mathematician Who Fled to Freedom but Still Stares Down Doubts By JORDANA CEPELEWICZ Svetlana Jitomirskaya was born in Ukraine, but left the Soviet Union to escape sexism and antisemitism. Even though her work in mathematical physics has now been honored with one of the field's top prizes, she finds herself still fighting old battles. Read the interview IN CASE YOU MISSED IT   Inside the Proton, the 'Most Complicated Thing' Imagineable By CHARLIE WOOD; Graphics by MERRILL SHERMAN The positively charged particle at the heart of the atom is an object of unspeakable complexity. We've attempted to connect the proton's many faces to form the most complete picture yet. Explore the visual explainer Around the Web Benevolent Blobs Biomolecular condensates are membraneless cellular organelles that dissolve as soon as their function is fulfilled. Many questions remain about these strange objects, reports Elie Dolgin for Nature. The discovery of these unstructured organelles that are driven by phase changes has fundamentally changed our ideas of how cells work. In 2021 Viviane Callier wrote for Quanta about what we've learned so far. Corvid Companionship Befriending crows requires patience, routine and peanuts, writes Abby Ohlheiser for MIT Technology Review. But in the end, you could be rewarded with gifts of shells and dead snakes. Crows are extremely intelligent. They remember people's faces and have complex social structures. They also understand abstract math like the concept of zero, as Jordana Cepelewicz reported in 2021. Follow Quanta Simons Foundation 160 5th Avenue, 7th Floor New York, NY 10010 Unsubscribe | About Quanta Privacy Policy | Terms | Contact Us   Copyright © 2022 Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent division of the Simons Foundation