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Mathematicians Outwit Hidden Number Conspiracy

January 3, 2022

Decades ago, a mathematician posed a warmup problem for some of the most difficult questions about prime numbers. It turned out to be just as difficult to solve, until now.

Mathematician Hurls Structure and Disorder Into Century-Old Problem

December 15, 2021

A new paper shows how to create longer disordered strings than mathematicians had thought possible, proving that a well-known recent conjecture is “spectacularly wrong.”

Researchers Defeat Randomness to Create Ideal Code

November 24, 2021

By carefully constructing a multidimensional and well-connected graph, a team of researchers has finally created a long-sought locally testable code that can immediately betray whether it’s been corrupted.

Podcast Preview: The Joy of x, Season Two

February 23, 2021

Hosted by Steven Strogatz, The Joy of x podcast is back with new episodes that explore the inner worlds of top-tier scientists and mathematicians like Frank Wilczek, Bonnie Bassler and Amie Wilkinson.

How I Learned to Love and Fear the Riemann Hypothesis

January 4, 2021

A number theorist recalls his first encounter with the Riemann hypothesis and breaks down the math in a new Quanta video.

A New Map of All the Particles and Forces

October 22, 2020

We’ve created a new way to explore the fundamental constituents of the universe.

Arrows of Time

May 4, 2020

The human mind has long grappled with the elusive nature of time: what it is, how to record it, how it regulates life, and whether it exists as a fundamental building block of the universe.

What Is the Geometry of the Universe?

March 16, 2020

In our mind’s eye, the universe seems to go on forever. But using geometry we can explore a variety of three-dimensional shapes that offer alternatives to “ordinary” infinite space.

The Map of Mathematics

February 13, 2020

Explore our surprisingly simple, absurdly ambitious and necessarily incomplete guide to the boundless mathematical universe.