Latest Articles
Amateur Mathematician Finds Smallest Universal Cover
Through exacting geometric calculations, Philip Gibbs has found the smallest known cover for any possible shape.
New Proof Shows Infinite Curves Come in Two Types
Alexander Smith’s work on the Goldfeld conjecture reveals fundamental characteristics of elliptic curves.
Without a Proof, Mathematicians Wonder How Much Evidence Is Enough
A new statistical model appears to undermine long-held assumptions in number theory. How much should it be trusted when all that really matters is proof?
A Proof About Where Symmetries Can’t Exist
In a major mathematical achievement, a small team of researchers has proven Zimmer’s conjecture.
Machine Learning Confronts the Elephant in the Room
A visual prank exposes an Achilles’ heel of computer vision systems: Unlike humans, they can’t do a double take.
Why Mathematicians Can’t Find the Hay in a Haystack
In math, sometimes the most common things are the hardest to find.
Tinkertoy Models Produce New Geometric Insights
An upstart field that simplifies complex shapes is letting mathematicians understand how those shapes depend on the space in which you visualize them.
Universal Method to Sort Complex Information Found
The nearest neighbor problem asks where a new point fits into an existing data set. A few researchers set out to prove that there was no universal way to solve it. Instead, they found such a way.
An Innovator Who Brings Order to an Infinitude of Equations
The mathematician Caucher Birkar was born on a subsistence farm and raised in the middle of the brutal war between Iran and Iraq. After fleeing to England, he has gone on to impose order on a wild landscape of mathematical equations.