NEUROSCIENCE | ALL TOPICS

New Cell Atlases Reveal Untold Variety in the Brain and Body

By YASEMIN SAPLAKOGLU

Recent efforts to map every cell in the human body have researchers floored by unfathomable diversity, with many thousands of subtly different types of cells in the human brain alone.

Read the article

Quanta is conducting a series of surveys to better serve our audience. Take our newsletter subscriber survey and you will be entered to win free Quanta merchandise.

ASTROPHYSICS

Extra-Long Blasts Challenge Our Theories of Cosmic Cataclysms

By CHARLIE WOOD

In less than half the duration of a pop song, gamma-ray bursts can emit about as much energy as our sun produces over billions of years. Recent observations are forcing astronomers to rethink their best theories of what might cause the bursts.

Read the article

Related:
Brighter Than a Billion Billion Suns:
Gamma-Ray Bursts Continue to Surprise
By Jonathan O'Callaghan (2021)

NUMBER THEORY

A Triplet Tree Forms One of the Most Beautiful Structures in Math

By ANNA KRAMER
and KONSTANTIN KAKAES

The Markov numbers reveal the secrets of irrational numbers and the patterns of the Fibonacci sequence. But there's one question about them that has resisted proof for over a century.

Read the blog

Related:
Two Students Unravel a Widely
Believed Math Conjecture
By Max G. Levy

COMPUTER SECURITY

Celebrated Cryptography Algorithm Gets an Upgrade

By MADISON GOLDBERG

Two researchers have improved a well-known technique for lattice basis reduction, opening up new avenues for practical experiments in cryptography and mathematics.

Read the blog