Plus: How solar systems unravel; Biologists watch memories guide learning; The magnetism behind cosmic temper tantrums; Multiverses on The Joy of Why

Math and Science News from Quanta Magazine View this email in your browser INFORMATION THEORY | ALL TOPICS   Secret Messages Can Hide in AI-Generated Media By STEPHEN ORNES In steganography, an ordinary message masks the presence of a secret communication. Humans can never do it perfectly, but a new study shows it's possible for machines. Read the article NONLINEAR DYNAMICS   New Proof Finds the 'Ultimate Instability' in a Solar System Model By JORDANA CEPELEWICZ For the first time, mathematicians have proved that planetary orbits in a solar system will always be unstable. Read the article Related:  Strange Stars Pulse to the Golden Mean By Natalie Wolchover (2015) MEMORY   Memories Help Brains Recognize New Events Worth Remembering By YASEMIN SAPLAKOGLU Memories may affect how well the brain will learn about future events by shifting our perceptions of the world. Read the blog Related:  New Map of Meaning in the Brain Changes Ideas About Memory By Jordana Cepelewicz (2022) SOLAR PHYSICS   The Tiny Physics Behind Big Cosmic Eruptions By ZACK SAVITSKY A new theory describes how particle interactions fuel fast magnetic reconnection, the process behind solar flares and other astrophysical jets. Read the blog Related:  Sun's Puzzling Plasma Recreated in a Laboratory By Erika K. Carlson (2019) THE JOY OF WHY   Are There Reasons to Believe in a Multiverse? Podcast hosted by STEVEN STROGATZ Several areas of physics suggest reasons to think that unobservable universes with different natural laws could lie beyond ours. The theoretical physicist David Kaplan talks with Steven Strogatz about the mysteries that a multiverse could solve. Listen to the podcast Read the transcript Around the Web Digging for Buried Baryons The missing baryon puzzle asks where all the ordinary (not dark) matter is hiding in the universe. While some astrophysicists have declared the puzzle solved, others are scouring the cosmos for the last bits of baryonic matter, reports Nathan Collins for Symmetry Magazine. In 2018, a large trove of previously overlooked baryonic matter was found in the warm tendrils of gas in the space between galaxies. Katia Moskvitch wrote about the discovery for Quanta and how it helped solve the missing baryon puzzle. Complexity in the Yeast Likely of Places Life has repeatedly evolved from unicellularity to multicellularity — and it can happen much more suddenly than was thought possible. Selection pressures led cultures of laboratory yeast to evolve multicellular forms in just a couple of years, reports Ed Yong for The Atlantic. The researchers imposed selection pressure on the yeast by depriving it of oxygen, which made larger, multicellular clumps more favorable. Veronique Greenwood reported on their study for Quanta when a preprint of the work was posted in 2021. 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