In this special live recording from the International Congress of Mathematicians in Philadelphia, July 2026, the central question discussed was what do mathematicians really value about doing mathematics in the first place?
Samuel Velasco/Quanta Magazine
Hidden correspondences hint at a deeper structure to the mathematical universe. Our columnist unpacks one of those connections and asks mathematicians what they might mean.
Mathematicians at OpenAI showed that the Navier-Stokes equations, which describe how fluids flow, can sometimes “blow up.” But the massive result is not without controversy.
Sarah Demers, chair of the physics department at Yale University, sees the potential for large language models to both help and harm her field.
By doubling their entire genome, organisms can evolve extremely rapidly — or they can lose it all. New studies reveal how to survive the high-risk, high-reward evolutionary event.
Mathematicians found that a broad class of networks will abruptly shift behavior past a critical point.
To explore quantum phenomena, we must leave the familiar world and enter the abstract realm of Hilbert space.
An updated view of categorization reflects the modern understanding that the nervous system is more of a prediction engine than a filing cabinet.
For the first time in 30 years, computer scientists have found a better way to allocate objects evenly between two groups.
Emily Buder/Quanta Magazine
In this special live recording from the International Congress of Mathematicians in Philadelphia, July 2026, the central question discussed was what do mathematicians really value about doing mathematics in the first place?
Intuition breaks down once we’re dealing with the endless. To begin with: Some infinities are bigger than others.
Illuminating basic science and math research through public service journalism.
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