Quanta Magazine

Within every cow is a thriving ecosystem. Churning deep in its intestines, a massive fermentation chamber known as the rumen hosts a robust microbiome that can consume up to 100 pounds of feed daily. Inside this gut pouch, tens of millions of bacteria scavenge for scraps of fiber, starch, and other nutrients, and break down cellulose and proteins. They get a hand from microbi...

One of the biggest mysteries in cosmology seems to keep getting bigger. Astronomers have known since the 1930s that the universe is expanding, but in the 1990s, the discovery that this expansion is accelerating rather than slowing down came as a huge shock to the field. Something had to be driving that acceleration, and dark energy was proposed as the cause. What began as a s...

The post

In theoretical computer science, the key to cracking tough problems is finding the right tools. Most researchers gravitate toward tools that match the problems they hope to solve, and some devote entire careers to mastering a few familiar techniques. But Shayan Oveis Gharan, a computer scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle, has never been content with the famil...

One might imagine that, for a mathematician, proving a monumental theorem is a blissful experience. It wasn’t so for Hong Wang. In February 2025, Wang and her collaborator Joshua Zahl presented a 127-page proof of a long-standing conjecture at the intersection of multiple branches of math. The duo had been checking their work for months and had sent it to select colleagues fo...