Mathematicians harness randomness to crack a 55-year-old conjecture

Brine shrimp study rewrites turbulence rule; Complex waves reveal the brain’s workings; New post on Transformation; New podcasts

Math and Science News from Quanta Magazine View this email in your browser COMBINATORICS | ALL TOPICS   Mathematicians Harness Randomness To Crack a 55-Year-Old Conjecture By SHALMA WEGSMAN After a long hiatus, a problem that was likely inspired by juggling has finally been resolved by a group of young mathematicians. Read the article FLUID DYNAMICS   Sea Monkey Study Rewrites a Rule of Turbulence By STEPHEN ORNES With a simple tweak, scientists can reverse the flow of turbulence in a 2D system. Read the article NEUROSCIENCE   Surprisingly Complex Waves Reveal the Brain’s Inner Workings By CONOR FEEHLY Unexpected patterns traveling across the cortex may be reorganizing its activity in real time. Read the article TRANSFORMATION   Major lattice proof percolates through math By KONSTANTIN KAKAES 2022 Fields medalist Hugo Duminil-Copin worked to prove a percolation problem for years. Anthropic may have just cracked it. Read the update THE JOY OF WHY   What Does the Fourth Dimension Actually Look Like? Podcast hosted by JANNA LEVIN with MAGGIE MILLER Maggie Miller explains why our intuition about three dimensions breaks down in four, and how she visualizes 4D spaces as a reel of three-dimensional snapshots. Listen (Apple) | Listen (Spotify) Read the article THE QUANTA PODCAST   ‘Jumping Genes’ Are More Than Parasitic DNA Podcast hosted by HANNAH WATERS with JAKE BUEHLER “Jumping genes” can cut and paste themselves into new locations in the genome. But they’re more than parasites or genetic junk. 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