What's Going On Inside Io, Jupiter's Volcanic Moon?

By ROBIN GEORGE ANDREWS

Recent flybys of the fiery world refute a leading theory of its inner structure — and reveal how little is understood about geologically active moons.

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BIOPHYSICS

How a Biofilm's Strange Shape Emerges From Cellular Geometry

By CARRIE ARNOLD

A soft matter physicist reveals how interactions within simple cellular collectives can lead to emergent physical traits.

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Q&A

Improving Deep Learning With a Little Help From Physics

By STEVE NADIS

Rose Yu has a plan for how to make AI better, faster and smarter — and it's already yielding results.

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A team of amateurs recently came together in an online collaboration called the Busy Beaver Challenge to pin down the value of BB(5), the fifth "busy beaver" number — a notoriously difficult problem in theoretical computer science.

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QUANTA SCIENCE PODCAST

Fish Have a Brain Microbiome. Could Humans Have One Too?
Podcast by SUSAN VALOT

Story by YASEMIN SAPLAKOGLU

The discovery that other vertebrates have healthy, microbial brains is fueling the still controversial possibility that we might have them as well.

Listen (Apple) | Listen (Spotify)

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