Explore every episode of the podcast Quanta Science Podcast

In a first, researchers have shown that adding more “qubits” to a quantum computer can make it more resilient. It’s an essential step on the long road to practical applications. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Clover 3” by Vibe Mountain.

Three new species of superconductivity were spotted this year, illustrating the myriad ways electrons can join together to form a frictionless quantum soup.

Invisibly to us, insects and other tiny creatures use static electricity to travel, avoid predators, collect pollen and more. New experiments explore how evolution may have influenced this phenomenon.

Cell membranes from comb jellies reveal a new kind of adaptation to the deep sea: curvy lipids that conform to an ideal shape under pressure. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music by Enchanted Forest Dub by South London HiFi.

While devising a new quantum algorithm, four researchers accidentally established a hard limit on the “spooky” phenomenon.

Physicists have ruled out a mundane explanation for the strange findings of an old Soviet experiment, leaving open the possibility that the results point to a new fundamental particle.

New experiments reveal how the brain chooses which memories to save and add credence to advice about the importance of rest.

Using machine learning, string theorists are finally showing how microscopic configurations of extra dimensions translate into sets of elementary particles — though not yet those of our universe.

Electroconvulsive therapy is highly effective in treating major depressive disorder, but no one knows why it works. New research suggests it may restore balance between excitation and inhibition in the brain.

Long-anticipated experiments that use light to mimic gravity are revealing the distribution of energies, forces and pressures inside a subatomic particle for the first time.

Two researchers have proved that Penrose tilings, famous patterns that never repeat, are mathematically equivalent to a kind of quantum error correction. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Quasi Motion” by Kevin MacLeod.

A controversial technique has produced detailed maps of the magnetic fields in colossal galaxy clusters. If confirmed, the approach could be used to reveal where cosmic magnetic fields come from.

Recent observations of an aging, alien planetary system are helping to answer the question: What will happen to our planet when the sun dies? Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Dark Toys” by SYBS.

Recent efforts to map every cell in the human body have researchers floored by unfathomable diversity, with many thousands of subtly different types of cells in the human brain alone. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Confusing Disco” by Birocratic.

Astronomers thought they had solved the mystery of gamma-ray bursts. A few recent events suggest otherwise. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Light Gazing” by Andrew Langdon.

For 50 years, physicists have understood current as a flow of charged particles. But a new experiment has found that in at least one strange material, this understanding falls apart. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Thought Bot” by Audionautix.

Sitting alongside the neurons in your enteric nervous system are underappreciated glial cells, which play key roles in digestion and disease that scientists are only just starting to understand. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Running Out” by Patrick Patrikios.

Cells in the placenta have an unusual trick for activating gentle immune defenses and keeping them turned on when no infection is present. It involves crafting and deploying a fake virus. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Unanswered Questions” by Kevin MacLeod.

The discovery that the brain has different systems for representing small and large numbers provokes new questions about memory, attention and mathematics. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Quasi Motion” by Kevin MacLeod.

The Reykjanes Peninsula has entered a new volcanic era. Innovative efforts to map and monitor the subterranean magma are saving lives. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Fire Water” by Saidbysed.

A new magnum opus posits the existence of a hidden mathematical link akin to the connection between electricity and magnetism. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Clover 3” by Vibe Mountain.

To better understand how neural networks learn to simulate writing, researchers trained simpler versions on synthetic children’s stories. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Thought Bot” by Audionautix.

Scientists have recently discovered scores of free-floating worlds that defy classification. The new observations have forced them to rethink their theories of star and planet formation. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Light Gazing” by Andrew Langdon.

Every species develops at its own unique tempo, leaving scientists to wonder what governs their timing. A suite of new findings suggests that cells use basic metabolic processes as clocks. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Pulse” by Geographer.

The telescope conjecture gave mathematicians a handle on ways to map one sphere to another. Now that it has been disproved, the universe of shapes has exploded. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Slow Burn” by Kevin MacLeod.

By watching “minimal” cells regain the fitness they lost, researchers are testing whether a genome can be too simple to evolve. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Hidden Agenda” by Kevin MacLeod.

Genetic elements called Mavericks that have some viral features could be responsible for the large-scale smuggling of DNA between species. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Clover” by Vibe Mountain.

New observations of a faraway rocky world that might have its own magnetic field could help astronomers understand the seemingly haphazard magnetic fields in our own solar system. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Light Gazing” by Andrew Langdon.

Quantum algorithms can find their way out of mazes exponentially faster than classical ones, at the cost of forgetting the paths they took. A new result suggests that the trade-off may be inevitable. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Confusing Disco” by Birocratic.

In some deep subterranean aquifers, cells have a chemical trick for making oxygen that could sustain whole underground ecosystems. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Pulse” by Geographer.

To buffer the brain against menaces in the blood, a dynamic, multi-tiered system of protection is built into the brain’s blood vessels. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Good Times” by Patrick Patrikios.

Giant black holes were supposed to be bit players in the early cosmic story. But recent James Webb Space Telescope observations are finding an unexpected abundance of the beasts. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Light Gazing” by Andrew Langdon.

New experiments show that the brain distinguishes between perceived and imagined mental images by checking whether they cross a “reality threshold.” Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Who’s Using Who” by The Mini Vandals.

Today’s language models are more sophisticated than ever, but they still struggle with the concept of negation. That’s unlikely to change anytime soon. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Hidden Agenda” by Kevin MacLeod.

The most comprehensive survey of how we share our microbiomes suggests a new way of thinking about the risks of developing some diseases that aren’t usually considered contagious. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Transmission” by John Deley and the 41 Players.

The quantum energy teleportation protocol was proposed in 2008 and largely ignored. Now two independent experiments have shown that it works. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Pulse” by Geographer.

Feelings of loneliness prompt changes in the brain that further isolate people from social contact. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Slow Burn” by Kevin MacLeod.

The neocortex of our brain is the seat of our intellect. New data suggests that mammals created it with new types of cells that they developed only after their evolutionary split from reptiles. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Pulse” by Geographer.

A wave of research improves reinforcement learning algorithms by pre-training them as if they were human. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Quasi Motion” by Kevin MacLeod.

Depression has often been blamed on low levels of serotonin in the brain. That answer is insufficient, but alternatives are coming into view and changing our understanding of the disease. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Redwood Trail” by Audionautix.

Queen ants live far longer than genetically identical workers. Researchers are learning what their longevity secrets could mean for aging in other species. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Good Times” by Patrick Patrikios.

The neural representations of a perceived image and the memory of it are almost the same. New work shows how and why they are different. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is “Light Gazing” by Andrew Langdon.