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.
Quanta Homepage
  • Physics
  • Mathematics
  • Biology
  • Computer Science
  • Topics
  • Archive

What's up in

Mathematics

Latest Articles

cartoon of a red-headed woman holding a flashlight that illuminates certain numbers against a dark blue background
Quantized Academy

How Can Infinitely Many Primes Be Infinitely Far Apart?

By Patrick Honner
July 21, 2022
Comment
Read Later

Mathematicians have been studying the distribution of prime numbers for thousands of years. Recent results about a curious kind of prime offer a new take on how spread out they can be.

combinatorics

Hypergraphs Reveal Solution to 50-Year-Old Problem

By Leila Sloman
July 14, 2022
Comment
Read Later

In 1973, Paul Erdős asked if it was possible to assemble sets of “triples” — three points on a graph — so that they abide by two seemingly incompatible rules. A new proof shows it can always be done.

The Joy of Why

How Do Mathematicians Know Their Proofs Are Correct?

By Steven Strogatz
July 13, 2022
Comment
Read Later

What makes a proof stronger than a guess? What does evidence look like in the realm of mathematical abstraction? Hear the mathematician Melanie Matchett Wood explain how probability helps to guide number theorists toward certainty.

Illustration of a rotating object that warps the space-time fabric around itself, as seen by eyes located in different places
general relativity

Mass and Angular Momentum, Left Ambiguous by Einstein, Get Defined

By Steve Nadis
July 13, 2022
Comment
Read Later

Surprising as it may sound, 107 years after the introduction of general relativity, the meanings of basic concepts are still being worked out.

2022 Fields and Abacus Medals

A Solver of the Hardest Easy Problems About Prime Numbers

By Erica Klarreich
July 5, 2022
Comment
Read Later

On his way to winning a Fields Medal, James Maynard has cut a path through simple-sounding questions about prime numbers that have stumped mathematicians for centuries.

Hugo Duminil-Copin wearing glasses
2022 Fields and Abacus Medals

For His Sporting Approach to Math, a Fields Medal

By Jordana Cepelewicz
July 5, 2022
Comment
Read Later

With Hugo Duminil-Copin, thinking rarely happens without moving. His insights into the flow-related properties of complex networks have earned him the Fields Medal.

June Huh with a polyhedron.
2022 Fields and Abacus Medals

He Dropped Out to Become a Poet. Now He’s Won a Fields Medal.

By Jordana Cepelewicz
July 5, 2022
Comment
Read Later

June Huh wasn’t interested in mathematics until a chance encounter during his sixth year of college. Now his profound insights connecting combinatorics and geometry have led to math’s highest honor.

Maryna Viazovska seated on the wooden steps of an amphitheater at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne.
2022 Fields and Abacus Medals

In Times of Scarcity, War and Peace, a Ukrainian Finds the Magic in Math

By Thomas Lin +1 authors
Erica Klarreich
July 5, 2022
Comment
Read Later

With her homeland mired in war, the sphere-packing number theorist Maryna Viazovska has become the second woman to win a Fields Medal in the award’s 86-year history.

A graphed cubic equation separates 16th-century scientists Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia, and Gerolamo Cardano
Quantized Columns

The Sordid Past of the Cubic Formula

By David S. Richeson
June 30, 2022
Comment
Read Later

The quest to solve cubic equations led to duels, betrayals — and modern mathematics.


Previous
  • 1
  • ...
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • ...
  • 48
Next
The Quanta Newsletter

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

Recent newsletters
Quanta Homepage
Facebook
Twitter
Youtube
Instagram

  • About Quanta
  • Archive
  • Contact Us
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Simons Foundation
All Rights Reserved © 2023