News
Key Chemistry Question Answered, No Quantum Computer Required
1+ hour, 46+ min ago (1181+ words) What Garnet Chan cares most about is basic science. He entered chemistry decades ago to understand some of the most consequential biochemical processes on Earth. "My main interest is in solving chemical problems. If classical computers are the right tool…...
Disorder Drives One of Nature's Most Complex Machines
2+ mon, 2+ week ago (1520+ words) The inner channel of the nuclear pore complex in all its messy glory. Far from a simple pore, the complex is filled with dynamic proteins that move molecules into and out of the nucleus. In this computer model, green strands…...
Physicists Make Electrons Flow Like Water
3+ mon, 2+ week ago (925+ words) Water molecules flow together; electrons usually do not. Myriam Wares for'Quanta Magazine If you were asked to picture how electrons move, you could be forgiven for imagining a stream of particles sluicing down a wire like water rushing through a…...
Why Is Ice Slippery? A New Hypothesis Slides Into the Chat.
5+ mon, 3+ week ago (597+ words) Solids don't usually have such slick surfaces. The reason we can gracefully glide on an ice-skating rink or clumsily slip on an icy sidewalk is that the surface of ice is coated by a thin watery layer. Scientists generally agree…...
Quasicrystals Spill Secrets of Their Formation
9+ mon, 1+ week ago (977+ words) How can atoms assemble into quasicrystals? Scientists seek to understand both for curiosity's sake and in hopes of putting the materials to work. DVDP for Quanta Magazine "Quasicrystals are one of those things that as a materials scientist, when you…...
Mirror Molecules: The Symmetry Rule Life Never Breaks
11+ mon, 3+ week ago (237+ words) Most organic molecules have a mirror-image twin. This concept is known as chirality. Yet life only uses one chiral molecule, not the other. The reason for this asymmetry is one of the greatest mysteries of biology. Mathematician Maggie Miller explores…...