The "blurriness" of remembered images may help our brains distinguish memories from current perceptions.

Researchers investigating alternatives to amyloid plaques as the possible cause of Alzheimer's disease have faced resistance, but intriguing new theories have emerged.

For three decades, most Alzheimer's researchers have stuck by the theory that aggregations of proteins called amyloid plaques cause the disease. But unsatisfied with the slow pace of progress, some are now exploring other hypotheses.

Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, we may have just gotten a glimpse of the first generation of stars.

Chips that run on an analog spectrum of memory rather than 0s and 1s could transform energy-efficient AI.

"Supergenes" lock several genes together into a single inheritable unit. This type of evolution offers both risks and rewards.

In 2022, astronomers saw the brightest gamma-ray burst ever observed by humans. Did it also offer a glimpse of dark matter?

What's inside a proton? Your answer may vary depending on how hard you hit it with electrons.

Physicists have all but confirmed the phenomenon behind the strongest known form of superconductivity.

A robot has, in all likelihood, leapt higher than any animal or machine before it on Earth.

The brain may be fearful and pessimistic by default.

A husband and wife math duo solved an algebraic question that went unanswered for more than a century.

The key to understanding the origin and fate of the universe may be a more complete understanding of the vacuum.

Scientists are beginning to grasp the biomechanics that allow birds to maneuver in the air.

Scientists are beginning to crack secrets from one of the sturdiest organic materials in nature.

A first-of-its-kind study offers a fresh perspective on what happens inside cells as they age.

Neuroscientists uncovered an energy-saving mode in vision-system neurons that works at the cost of being able to see fine-grained details. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Music is "Unanswered Questions" by Kevin MacLeod.

Mathematicians recently figured out a near-optimal way to go with the flow.

A graduate student recently proved Paul Erdős' conjecture about what makes the prime numbers particularly unique among primitive sets.

The second law of thermodynamics is among the most sacred in all of science, but it has always rested on 19th century arguments about probability. New arguments trace its true source to the flows of quantum information.

Robots are about to venture into the sunless depths of lunar craters to investigate ancient water ice trapped there, while remote studies find hints about how water arrives on rocky worlds. Read more and explore infographics at quantamagazine.org.

For centuries, mathematicians have tried to prove that Euler's fluid equations can produce nonsensical answers. A new approach to machine learning has researchers betting that "blowup" is near. Read more at quantamagazine.org. Music is "Pulse" by Geographer.

The existence of secure cryptography depends on one of the oldest questions in computational complexity.

Dopamine, a neurochemical often associated with reward behavior, also seems to help organize precisely when the brain initiates movements. It's the latest revelation about the power of neuromodulators.