A New Approach to Computation Reimagines AI

Plus: Asgard cells hint at origin of life; Well-rounded electrons; Subspace designs in vector space; New Quanta Science Podcast

Math and Science News from Quanta Magazine View this email in your browser MACHINE LEARNING | ALL TOPICS   A New Approach to Computation Reimagines Artificial Intelligence By ANIL ANANTHASWAMY By imbuing enormous vectors with semantic meaning, we can get machines to reason more abstractly — and efficiently — than before. Read the article MICROBES   Primitive Asgard Cells Show Life on the Brink of Complexity By JOSHUA SOKOL As researchers race to cultivate more of them, the intriguing cells now growing in labs give us our best look at what the forerunners of all complex life were like. Read the article Related:  DNA's Histone Spools Hint at How Complex Cells Evolved By Viviane Callier (2021) QUANTUM PHYSICS   The Electron Is So Round That It's Ruling Out Potential New Particles By ZACK SAVITSKY If the electron's charge wasn't perfectly round, it could reveal the existence of hidden particles. A new measurement approaches perfection. Read the blog Related:  Physicists Use Quantum Mechanics to Pull Energy out of Nothing By Charlie Wood COMBINATORICS   Mathematicians Find Hidden Structure in a Common Type of Space By JORDANA CEPELEWICZ In 50 years of searching, mathematicians found only one example of a "subspace design" that fit their criteria. A new proof reveals that there are infinitely more out there. Read the blog QUANTA SCIENCE PODCAST   Astronomers Say They Have Spotted the Universe's First Stars Podcast hosted by SUSAN VALOT; Story by JONATHAN O'CALLAGHAN Theory has it that "Population III" stars brought light to the cosmos. JWST may have just glimpsed them. Listen to the podcast Read the article Around the Web New Image of M87 Black Hole The Event Horizon Telescope collaboration has released a new image of the black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy, Jennifer Ouellette reports for Ars Technica. The new image is a more detailed version of one released in 2019 — the first glimpse ever of any black hole. At the time, astrophysicist Janna Levin wrote for Quanta about what that image meant to her and her field. Eye Cite Since Darwin, biologists have wondered how evolution could drive the development of complex, intricate organs such as the eye. New research suggests that a key gene stolen from bacteria might have played a role in accelerating the eye's evolution, reports Elizabeth Pennisi for Science Magazine. Some lines of evidence suggest that the evolution of complexity can often be almost inevitable, even arising in the absence of natural selection. In 2013, Carl Zimmer wrote for Quanta about this "zero-force" evolutionary law. Follow Quanta Simons Foundation 160 5th Avenue, 7th Floor New York, NY 10010 Unsubscribe | About Quanta Privacy Policy | Terms | Contact Us   Copyright © 2023 Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent division of the Simons Foundation