The Mystery of Early Universe’s Little Red Dots

Recently, astrophysicists identified something peculiar: An enormous “naked” black hole with no galaxy in sight. On this week’s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with physics staff writer Charlie Wood about how the strange little red dot is upending our assumptions of the first billion years of cosmic history. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.Audio coda courtesy of Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab.

Thanks to a delicate interplay between plate tectonics and life, Earth’s thermostat has kept animal life thriving on our planet for half a billion years. On this week’s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with contributing writer Peter Brannen about our planetary highs and lows, and the precarious goldilocks zone our animal-filled finds itself in now. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.Audio coda courtesy of Martin Rietze's YouTube channel.

A new proposal makes the case that paraparticles — a new category of quantum particle — could be created in exotic materials.The story ‘Paraparticles’ Would Be a Third Kingdom of Quantum Particle first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

Imagine a set of simple building blocks that can self-assemble into any shape you want. The possibilities for such a technology could be boundless. Inspired by nature, “complexity engineering” seeks to design such blocks, building on a classic computer simulation. On this week’s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with contributing writer George Musser about recent developments in so-called cellular automata. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.Audio coda courtesy of the Simons Foundation. 

Around 6,000 years ago, the Sahara was a lush grassland. Then, as if a switch flipped, it began to dry out, becoming the desert that we know today. Tipping points are moments in Earth’s history where gradual change suddenly becomes rapid and forms a new equilibrium.They’re one of the most alarming threats of our planet’s near future — and one of the most uncertain.When will a tipping point occur? Mathematicians are attempting to turn vague, apocalyptic visions into something that we can actually prepare for and deal with. On this week’s episode, host Samir Patel speaks with contributing writer Gregory Barber about what tipping points can — and cannot — tell us about the future of our planet. This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.Audio coda courtesy of Gresham College. 

It’s been difficult to find important questions that quantum computers can answer faster than classical machines, but a new algorithm appears to do it for some critical optimization tasks.The story Quantum Speedup Found for Huge Class of Hard Problems first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

“Memory” means many things to many people, and in many fields. We tend to understand memory to be a phenomenon that happens primarily in the brain, but in recent years, researchers have understood memory as a physical phenomenon that can occur in plenty of systems. On this episode, contributing writer Claire L. Evans tells host Samir Patel about how neuroscientists are probing the memory of individual cells.Audio coda courtesy of YACHT.

The climate is changing. So is the way we understand the climate. On this week's episode, contributing writer Zack Savitsky joins host Samir Patel to discuss his recent reporting on the rich history and uncertain future of climate modeling, the field of science that blends math, physics, and earth science to predict the behavior of our planet's complex climate system.Audio coda courtesy of Princeton University

Rare and powerful compounds, known as keystone molecules, can build a web of invisible interactions among species.The story A New, Chemical View of Ecosystems first appeared on Quanta Magazine.

In order to trust machines with important jobs, we need a high level of confidence that they share our values and goals. Recent work shows that this “alignment” can be brittle, superficial, even unstable. In one study, a few training adjustments led a popular chatbot to recommend murder. On this episode, contributing writer Stephen Ornes tells host Samir Patel about what this research reveals.Audio coda from The National Archives and Records Administration.