Plus: 'Black holes' in a bathtub; The advantages of blurry memory; Melanie Mitchell on AI alignment

Math and Science News from Quanta Magazine View this email in your browser GEOMETRY | ALL TOPICS   'Nasty' Geometry Breaks Decades-Old Tiling Conjecture By JORDANA CEPELEWICZ Mathematicians predicted that if they imposed enough restrictions on how a shape might tile space, they could force a periodic pattern to emerge. But they were wrong. Read the article Q&A   She Turns Fluids Into 'Black Holes' and 'Inflating Universes' By THOMAS LEWTON By using fluids to model inaccessible realms of the cosmos, Silke Weinfurtner is "looking for a deeper truth beyond one system." But what can such experiments teach us? Read the interview Related:  What Sonic Black Holes Say About Real Ones By Natalie Wolchover (2016) NEUROSCIENCE   How the Brain Distinguishes Memories From Perceptions By YASEMIN SAPLAKOGLU The neural representations of a perceived image and the memory of it are almost the same. New work shows how and why they are different. Read the blog Related:  New Map of Meaning in the Brain Changes Ideas About Memory By Jordana Cepelewicz QUANTIZED COLUMNS   What Does It Mean to Align AI With Human Values? By MELANIE MITCHELL Making sure our machines understand the intent behind our instructions is an important problem that requires understanding intelligence itself. Read the column Around the Web More Magma A new measurement of Yellowstone National Park's underground magma reservoirs reveals that they hold more than expected. But this doesn't mean Yellowstone is more likely to erupt, explains Robin George Andrews for The New York Times. "Hot spot tracks" like Yellowstone are thought to be caused by giant plumes that bring magma up from Earth's mantle. In 2021 Andrews wrote for Quanta about how the plumes' treelike structures are formed by complex dynamics in the mantle. Who Will Build the First True Quantum Computer?  The race for the first useful, "fault-tolerant" quantum computer is underway. For The New Yorker, Stephen Witt explains the premise and pitfalls of quantum computing, and describes the current state of the race. Quantum computing derives its capabilities from uniquely quantum properties like superposition and entanglement. In 2021 Scott Aaronson wrote for Quanta about why quantum computing is so hard to explain. 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