Black holes or black hole stars? Astronomers spar over Webb telescope’s ‘little red dots.’

Comb jellies are biological wonders; Mathematicians build long-awaited graph sandwich; new YouTube video on Navier-Stokes; new podcast episodes

Math and Science News from Quanta Magazine View this email in your browser ASTROPHYSICS | ALL TOPICS   Black Holes or Black Hole Stars? Astronomers Spar Over Webb Telescope’s ‘Little Red Dots.’ By CHARLIE WOOD The James Webb Space Telescope spots mysterious “little red dots” everywhere. A bold new theory suggests they’re suns dozens of times larger than our entire solar system. Read the article IMAGE GALLERY   Ctenophores Aren’t Just Beautiful. They’re Biological Wonders. By MARLOWE STARLING Comb jellies are helping answer fundamental questions in biology, from how the earliest nervous systems evolved to how bioluminescence works. Read the article GRAPH THEORY   Mathematicians Build Long-Awaited Graph Sandwich By PAULINA ROWIŃSKA The proof of a decades-old conjecture has given researchers a new way to understand complex networks. Read the article YOUTUBE   Why Navier-Stokes Pushes Math and Physics to the Edge By EMILY BUDER The Navier-Stokes equations are among the most important — and most challenging — equations in physics. So, what makes the Navier-Stokes equations so difficult? And how could a new OpenAI proof finally resolve the problem? Watch the video THE JOY OF WHY   Where Does the Quantum World End and Ours Begin? Podcast hosted by STEVEN STROGATZ with JONATHAN HALLIWELL Jonathan Halliwell explains how quantum decoherence is key to understanding how we transition from a world with a wave-like nature of matter and energy to the classical macroscopic world that we’re used to. Listen (Apple) | Listen (Spotify) Read the transcript THE QUANTA PODCAST   Four-Color Theorem Is Still a Math Favorite Podcast hosted by SAMIR PATEL with GREGORY BARBER In the mid-19th century, a brain teaser about map colors quickly turned into an obsession. Today, the hunt is still on for a simpler solution to the deceptively tricky problem. Listen (Apple) | Listen (Spotify) Read the article Follow Quanta Unsubscribe | About Quanta | My Bookmarks Privacy Policy | Terms | Contact Us   Copyright © 2026 Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent division of the Simons Foundation Simons Foundation 160 5th Avenue, 7th Floor New York, NY 10010