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

Kelsey Houston-Edwards

Contributing Writer

machine learning

Machine Learning Becomes a Mathematical Collaborator

By Kelsey Houston-Edwards
February 15, 2022
Read Later

Two recent collaborations between mathematicians and DeepMind demonstrate the potential of machine learning to help researchers generate new mathematical conjectures.

geometry

Mathematicians Transcend Geometric Theory of Motion

By Kelsey Houston-Edwards
December 9, 2021
Read Later

More than 30 years ago, Andreas Floer changed geometry. Now, two mathematicians have finally figured out how to extend his revolutionary perspective.

Illustration of figures building a large structure, with a new material being used for the latest additions
polynomials

Mathematicians Find Long-Sought Building Blocks for Special Polynomials

By Kelsey Houston-Edwards
May 25, 2021
Read Later

Hilbert’s 12th problem asked for novel analogues of the roots of unity, the building blocks for certain number systems. Now, over 100 years later, two mathematicians have produced them.

topology

How Mathematicians Use Homology to Make Sense of Topology

By Kelsey Houston-Edwards
May 11, 2021
Read Later

Originally devised as a rigorous means of counting holes, homology provides a scaffolding for mathematical ideas, allowing for a new way to analyze the shapes within data.

Side-by-side illustrations of the same linear hypergraph. The edges of the hypergraph are colored in the illustration on the right, but not in the illustration on the left.
combinatorics

Mathematicians Settle Erdős Coloring Conjecture

By Kelsey Houston-Edwards
April 5, 2021
Read Later

Fifty years ago, Paul Erdős and two other mathematicians came up with a graph theory problem that they thought they might solve on the spot. A team of mathematicians has finally settled it.

An illustration of a doughnut-shaped elliptic curve intertwined with the Julia set.
number theory

Mathematicians Set Numbers in Motion to Unlock Their Secrets

By Kelsey Houston-Edwards
February 22, 2021
Read Later

A new proof demonstrates the power of arithmetic dynamics, an emerging discipline that combines insights from number theory and dynamical systems.

A visualization of the tower formed by the 3-adic numbers
Abstractions blog

An Infinite Universe of Number Systems

By Kelsey Houston-Edwards
October 19, 2020
Read Later

The p-adics form an infinite collection of number systems based on prime numbers. They’re at the heart of modern number theory.

About the author

Kelsey Houston-Edwards is a freelance math and science writer and the former host of the online show PBS Infinite Series. You can find more of her writing at kelseyhoustonedwards.com.

Follow Quanta

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

Instagram

RSS

Newsletter

All Time

Most Read From Kelsey Houston-Edwards

This Data is Current Loading...

This Data is Current Loading...

This Data is Current Loading...

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