Plus: Heat destroys all order, except for this one special case; Mathematicians discover new way for spheres to 'kiss'; New Quanta Science Podcast

Math and Science News from Quanta Magazine View this email in your browser NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING | ALL TOPICS   Can AI Models Show Us How People Learn? Impossible Languages Point a Way. By BEN BRUBAKER Certain grammatical rules never appear in any known language. By constructing artificial languages that have these rules, linguists can use neural networks to explore how people learn. Read the article QUANTUM PHYSICS   Heat Destroys All Order. Except for in This One Special Case. By CHARLIE WOOD Heat is supposed to ruin anything it touches. But physicists have shown that an idealized form of magnetism is heatproof. Read the article SPHERE PACKING   Mathematicians Discover New Way for Spheres to 'Kiss' By GREGORY BARBER A new proof marks the first progress in decades on important cases of the so-called kissing problem.  Read the article QUANTA SCIENCE PODCAST   Physicists Pinpoint the Quantum Origin of the Greenhouse Effect Podcast hosted by JANNA LEVIN Story by JOSEPH HOWLETT Carbon dioxide's powerful heat-trapping effect has been traced to a quirk of its quantum structure. Read the article Listen to the podcast Follow Quanta Unsubscribe | About Quanta | My Bookmarks Privacy Policy | Terms | Contact Us   Copyright © 2025 Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent division of the Simons Foundation Simons Foundation 160 5th Avenue, 7th Floor New York, NY 10010