Science

The Quanta Podcast

by Quanta Magazine

Life SciencesSciencePhysics

Today: #77 in Science on our combined chart.

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Chart positions today · United States

Science

#77

#52#52 Pulse 12

If you like The Quanta Podcast, try…

The Joy of Why

Shared creator or host credits

Realm of Quantum Mechanics

Ranking history · United States

Science

Latest daily rankings: Oct 21. New rankings will appear after the next update.

Position on the Science combined chart over the last 7 days. Toggle platforms to compare their positions. Lower rank numbers are better.

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Date	Combined Rank	Apple Podcasts	Pocket Casts	Castbox
Oct 21	#77	#52	—	#52
Oct 20	#98	#76	—	#77
Oct 19	#97	#70	—	#73
Oct 18	#109	#91	—	#67
Oct 17	#96	#70	—	#60
Oct 16	#80	#53	—	#58
Oct 15	#78	#55	#50	#50

Latest episodes

'Ghostly' Galaxies and the Mystery of Dark Matter

October 20, 2026 · 26 min

In 2018, using the Keck Observatory in Hawaiʻi, astronomers discovered the first known dark matter-deficient galaxy, DF2. It’s about the same size as the Milky Way, but way dimmer, with 200 times fewer stars. Since then, two more phantom…
How Math Brings Together Classical Chaos, Quantum Mechanics, and Fractals

October 13, 2026 · 29 min

The uncertainty principle tells us that the more you know about where a quantum particle is, the less you can know about how fast it’s moving, and vice versa. In 2023, graduate student Alex Cohen stunned the math world when he posted a…
Audio Edition: Sometimes Being First Means Seeing the End Before Anyone Else

October 8, 2026 · 25 min

Determination and effort propelled Jacob Tsimerman to the top of the math world. But now that he’s won a Fields Medal, he worries that the field is in jeopardy. The article Sometimes Being First Means Seeing the End Before Anyone Else…
Sea Monkeys, Jupiter, and the Mystery of Turbulence

October 6, 2026 · 28 min

Turbulence is all around us: bumping our planes, roiling our rivers, swirling milk into our coffee. These systems quickly become extremely chaotic and complex. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with…
‘Jumping Genes’ Are More Than Parasitic DNA

September 29, 2026 · 27 min

You might imagine that the DNA in your cells has a simple history. But that’s not the entire story. Nearly half of your genome is a wild drama, thanks to a genetic material called transposons that can clip itself out of the DNA sequence…

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Audio Edition: For Hong Wang, Living Fully in the Math World Means Threading the Needle

September 24, 2026 · 27 min

Focus, commitment, and insight resulted in a “once in a century” proof. Hong Wang is now just the third woman to win a Fields Medal. The article Living Fully in the Math World Means Threading the Needle first appeared on Quanta Magazine.
Are the Little Red Dots Actually Black Hole Suns?

September 22, 2026 · 34 min

When all you can see is a speck, it’s hard to tell what you’re looking at. Astronomers first argued that little red dots spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope in 2022 were distant galaxies on the cosmic horizon, mainly because of their…
Four-Color Theorem Is Still a Math Favorite

September 15, 2026 · 30 min

In 1852, the mathematician Francis Guthrie was coloring in a map of English counties when he noticed that he needed only four colors. Was this always true, he wondered? The question captured the imagination of hobbyists and professionals…
Audio Edition: ‘Reverse Mathematics’ Illuminates Why Hard Problems Are Hard

September 10, 2026 · 12 min

Researchers have used metamathematical techniques to show that certain theorems that look superficially distinct are in fact logically equivalent. The article ‘Reverse Mathematics’ Illuminates Why Hard Problems Are Hard first appeared on…
Does Computer Science Need Computers?

September 8, 2026 · 30 min

In popular culture, computer science is practically synonymous with programming. There are obviously branches of computer science in which computer hardware and software are essential, such as in the design of operating systems or the…
How the Brain Compresses Our Noisy World

September 1, 2026 · 31 min

If you are well rested and full, your brain tells you that a bruised overripe apple is a piece of subpar fruit to be passed over. However, if you are exhausted and hungry, an overripe apple is categorized as much-needed food. But how is…
Audio Edition: A Cell So Minimal That It Challenges Definitions of Life

August 27, 2026 · 17 min

The newly described microbe represents a world of parasitic, intercellular biodiversity only beginning to be revealed by genome sequencing. The article A Cell So Minimal That It Challenges Definitions of Life first appeared on Quanta…

Full episode archive on Apple Podcasts →

About the show

Exploring the distant universe, the insides of cells, the abstractions of math, the complexity of information itself, and much more, The Quanta Podcast is a tour of the frontier between the known and the unknown. In each episode, Quanta Magazine Editor-in-Chief Samir Patel speaks with the minds behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math. Quanta specifically covers fundamental research — driven by curiosity, discovery and the overwhelming desire to know why and how. Join us every Tuesday for a stimulating conversation about the biggest ideas and the tiniest details. (If you've been a fan of the Quanta Science Podcast, it will continue here. You'll see those episodes marked as audio edition episodes every two weeks.)