We care about your data, and we'd like to use cookies to give you a smooth browsing experience. Please agree and read more about our privacy policy.
  • Physics

  • Mathematics

  • Biology

  • Computer Science

  • Topics

  • Archive

Erica Klarreich

Contributing Correspondent

An illustration of computer scientists looking down a new road that breaks open a traveling salesperson route.
algorithms

Computer Scientists Break Traveling Salesperson Record

By Erica Klarreich
October 8, 2020
Read Later

After 44 years, there’s finally a better way to find approximate solutions to the notoriously difficult traveling salesperson problem.

An illustration of an ant walking in a straight line around a dodecahedron.
Abstractions blog

Mathematicians Report New Discovery About the Dodecahedron

By Erica Klarreich
August 31, 2020
Read Later

Three mathematicians have resolved a fundamental question about straight paths on the 12-sided Platonic solid.

number theory

Landmark Math Proof Clears Hurdle in Top Erdős Conjecture

By Erica Klarreich
August 3, 2020
Read Later

Two mathematicians have proved the first leg of Paul Erdős’ all-time favorite problem about number patterns.

A photograph of the mathematician James Maynard outside his home in Oxford, England.
profiles

A Number Theorist Who Solves the Hardest Easy Problems

By Erica Klarreich
July 1, 2020
Read Later

In his rapid ascent to the top of his field, James Maynard has cut a path through simple-sounding questions about prime numbers that have stumped mathematicians for centuries.

An illustration of a knot that mathematicians might study using tools called invariants.
Abstractions blog

In a Single Measure, Invariants Capture the Essence of Math Objects

By Erica Klarreich
June 2, 2020
Read Later

To distinguish between fundamentally different objects, mathematicians turn to invariants that encode the objects’ essential features.

knot theory

Graduate Student Solves Decades-Old Conway Knot Problem

By Erica Klarreich
May 19, 2020
Read Later

It took Lisa Piccirillo less than a week to answer a long-standing question about a strange knot discovered over half a century ago by the legendary John Conway.

Langlands program

‘Amazing’ Math Bridge Extended Beyond Fermat’s Last Theorem

By Erica Klarreich
April 6, 2020
Read Later

Mathematicians have figured out how to expand the reach of a mysterious bridge connecting two distant continents in the mathematical world.

Multimedia

What Is the Geometry of the Universe?

By Erica Klarreich +1 authors
Lucy Reading-Ikkanda
March 16, 2020
Read Later

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.

combinatorics

Decades-Old Computer Science Conjecture Solved in Two Pages

By Erica Klarreich
July 25, 2019
Read Later

The “sensitivity” conjecture stumped many top computer scientists, yet the new proof is so simple that one researcher summed it up in a single tweet.


Previous
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • ...
  • 8
Next

The Quanta Newsletter

Get highlights of the most important news delivered to your email inbox

Recent newsletters


  • About Quanta
  • Archive
  • Contact Us
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Simons Foundation
All Rights Reserved © 2022