The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. In 1974, five years before he wrote his Pulitzer Prize–winning book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas Hofstadter was ...

Does quantum mechanics really reflect nature in its truest form, or is it just our imprecise way of describing the weird properties of the very small? A famous test that can help answer this question ...

A century ago, the strange behavior of atoms and elementary particles led physicists to formulate a new theory of nature. That theory, quantum mechanics, found immediate success, proving its worth ...

A team of researchers has designed a theoretical model for a topological quantum battery capable of long-distance energy transfer and immunity to dissipation. By exploiting topological properties in ...

When I began my master’s program in cognitive science, an electrical engineering professor told us—rather arrogantly—that the soul is nothing but neurons firing. “You’re deluded if you think otherwise ...

Unifying gravity and quantum theory remains a significant goal in modern physics. Despite the success in unifying all other fundamental interactions (electromagnetism, strong force and weak force) ...

Quantum computers are still in their infancy. Presently limited to 100 or so error-prone qubits, the quantum equivalents to classical bits, they are far from supreme calculating machines that are ...

In the 100th-anniversary year of quantum mechanics, which describes the universe at its smallest, most fundamental scales, the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics has gone to three pioneers in bringing its ...