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Audio Edition: What Is the Fourier Transform?
Amid the chaos of revolutionary France, one man’s mathematical obsession gave way to a calculation that now underpins much of mathematics and physics…
15 hours ago
The 'Truth Machine' That Is Changing Math
The groundbreaking proof assistant Lean acts as a sort of automatic quality control. It’s gaining ground in the math world — in part because it can i…
2 days, 15 hours ago
Ecotypes Make the Idea of a Species Even Fuzzier
Season 1
How do you define a species? The question has been controversial since the days of Darwin. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel sp…
1 week, 2 days ago
What Actually Causes Lightning?
Thunderstorms have captivated humanity for millennia, and yet their inner workings remain deeply mysterious. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, g…
2 weeks, 2 days ago
Audio Edition: Astrophysicists Find No ‘Hair’ on Black Holes
According to Einstein’s theory of gravity, black holes have only a small handful of distinguishing characteristics. Quantum theory implies they may h…
3 weeks ago
The AI Revolution in Math Has Arrived
In 2026, shock at AI’s growing mathematical abilities turned into something more like wonder — and concern. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, ho…
3 weeks, 2 days ago
Ice Is Way More Complex Than It Seems
Over the past decade, computer simulations have predicted tens of thousands of possible forms of ice. Though uncommon on our planet, exotic ice may e…
4 weeks, 2 days ago
Audio Edition: How Distillation Makes AI Models Smaller and Cheaper
Fundamental technique lets researchers use a big, expensive “teacher” model to train a “student” model for less.
The story How Distillation Makes AI M…
1 month ago
Our Immune Systems Are Full of Ancient Weapons
Billions of years ago, battles between bacteria and viruses wrote the rulebook for how hosts and pathogens behave. Today, our immune system follows s…
1 month ago
What Can We Gain by Losing Infinity?
Most mathematicians take the notion of infinity for granted — it’s deeply rooted in math’s most fundamental assumptions. But a small group of researc…
1 month, 1 week ago