Plus: Online algorithms meet a theoretical hurdle; Fermat's lesser-known 'little theorem'; New Quanta Science Podcast

Math and Science News from Quanta Magazine View this email in your browser PHYSIOLOGY | ALL TOPICS   In the Gut's 'Second Brain,' Key Agents of Health Emerge By YASEMIN SAPLAKOGLU Sitting alongside the neurons in your enteric nervous system are underappreciated glial cells, which play key roles in digestion and disease that scientists only are just starting to understand. Read the article ALGORITHMS   Researchers Refute a Widespread Belief About Online Algorithms By MADISON GOLDBERG Three computer scientists have disproved a long-standing conjecture about a fundamental problem involving imperfect information. Read the article Related:  How Randomness Improves Algorithms By Ben Brubaker QUANTIZED ACADEMY   Pierre de Fermat's Link to a High Schooler's Prime Math Proof By PATRICK HONNER Pierre de Fermat's "little theorem" is less famous than his last one, but it helped mathematicians discover a class of almost-prime numbers called Carmichael numbers. Read the column Related:  Teenager Solves Stubborn Riddle About Prime Number Look-Alikes By Jordana Cepelewicz (2022) QUANTA SCIENCE PODCAST   To Move Fast, Quantum Maze Solvers Must Forget the Past By BEN BRUBAKER; Podcast hosted by SUSAN VALOT If you've ever entered a room, and then completely forgotten how you got there, you may have something in common with a quantum computer. Listen to the podcast Read the article IN CASE YOU MISSED IT   When Computers Write Proofs, What's the Point of Mathematicians? Video by CHRISTOPHER WEBB YOUNG and EMILY BUDER The number theorist Andrew Granville knows that AI will profoundly change math. That's why he's started talking to philosophers about the nature of mathematical proof.  Watch the video Read the interview Around the Web The Incredible Shrinking Exoplanets A new study suggests that some exoplanets' blazing hot cores can cause them to lose their atmosphere and shrink, reports Isaac Schultz for Gizmodo. That could explain why the size distribution of observed planets has a curious gap in it. Very few planets are between 1.5 and two times the size of Earth. In 2019, Rebecca Boyle wrote for Quanta about this puzzle and the possible solutions that astronomers were mulling over.  Follow Quanta Unsubscribe | About Quanta | My Bookmarks Privacy Policy | Terms | Contact Us   Copyright © 2023 Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent division of the Simons Foundation Simons Foundation 160 5th Avenue, 7th Floor New York, NY 10010