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Kevin Hartnett

Kevin Hartnett

Contributing Writer

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Latest Articles

Illustration of Russian dolls sitting inside a larger Russian doll.
combinatorics

Google Researcher, Long Out of Math, Cracks Problem About Sets

By Kevin Hartnett
January 3, 2023
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On nights and weekends, Justin Gilmer attacked an old question in pure math using the tools of information theory.

neuroscience

The Brain Uses Calculus to Control Fast Movements

By Kevin Hartnett
November 28, 2022
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Researchers discover that to sharpen its control over precision maneuvers, the brain uses comparisons between control signals — not the signals themselves.

Illustration of thumbs flipping coins.
information theory

How Shannon Entropy Imposes Fundamental Limits on Communication

By Kevin Hartnett
September 6, 2022
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What’s a message, really? Claude Shannon recognized that the elemental ingredient is surprise.

A deltoid and other mathematical shapes.
geometry

A Question About a Rotating Line Helps Reveal What Makes Real Numbers Special

By Kevin Hartnett
July 26, 2022
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The Kakeya conjecture predicts how much room you need to point a line in every direction. In one number system after another — with one important exception — mathematicians have been proving it true.

Seifert surfaces formed from closed loops.
topology

Special Surfaces Remain Distinct in Four Dimensions

By Kevin Hartnett
June 16, 2022
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For decades mathematicians have searched for a specific pair of surfaces that can’t be transformed into each other in four-dimensional space. Now they’ve found them.

number theory

Mathematicians Clear Hurdle in Quest to Decode Primes

By Kevin Hartnett
January 13, 2022
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Paul Nelson has solved the subconvexity problem, bringing mathematicians one step closer to understanding the Riemann hypothesis and the distribution of prime numbers.

topology

How Tadayuki Watanabe Disproved a Major Conjecture About Spheres

By Kevin Hartnett
October 26, 2021
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Watanabe invented a new way of distinguishing shapes on his way to solving the last open case of the Smale conjecture, a central question in topology about symmetries of the sphere.

Illustration showing yellow and green shapes over a blue background
topology

In Topology, When Are Two Shapes the Same?

By Kevin Hartnett
September 28, 2021
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As topologists seek to classify shapes, the effort hinges on how to define a manifold and what it means for two of them to be equivalent.

topology

New Math Book Rescues Landmark Topology Proof

By Kevin Hartnett
September 9, 2021
Comment
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Michael Freedman’s momentous 1981 proof of the four-dimensional Poincaré conjecture was on the verge of being lost. The editors of a new book are trying to save it.


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About the author

Kevin Hartnett was the senior writer at Quanta Magazine covering mathematics and computer science. His work has been collected in multiple volumes of the “Best Writing on Mathematics” series. From 2013-2016 he wrote “Brainiac,” a weekly column for the Boston Globe‘s Ideas section.
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