The idea that reality—the universe, our world, and everything we perceive—is a simulation has fascinated philosophers and scientists for millennia, but new findings suggest that the theory, despite ...

"We have demonstrated that it is impossible to describe all aspects of physical reality using a computational theory of quantum gravity," says Dr. Faizal. "Therefore, no physically complete and ...

This post was updated Aug. 31 at 7:59 p.m. Warning: Spoilers for R.F. Kuang’s “Katabasis” ahead. “Katabasis” is an intriguing book for academics but possibly a challenging journey for casual readers.

Russell has a PhD in the history of medicine, violence, and colonialism. His research has explored topics including ethics, science governance, and medical involvement in violent contexts. Russell has ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. In 1994, an earthquake of a proof shook up the mathematical world. The mathematician Andrew Wiles had finally settled Fermat’s Last ...

Ananyo Bhattacharya is chief science writer at the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences and the author of The Man from the Future: The Visionary Ideas of John von Neumann. One of the biggest ...

A new physics paper takes a step toward creating a long-sought "theory of everything" by uniting gravity with the quantum world. However, the new theory remains far from being proven observationally.

Humans started counting tens of thousands of years ago, but when did they begin figuring out advanced arithmetic, algebra and even calculus? When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an ...

Microsoft has introduced a new set of small language models called Phi-4-reasoning, Phi-4-reasoning-plus, and Phi-4-mini-reasoning, which are described as "marking a new era for efficient AI." These ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. In 2003, a German graduate student named Britta Späth encountered the McKay conjecture, one of the biggest open problems in the ...