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The Journey to Define Dimension

By David S. Richeson
September 13, 2021
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The concept of dimension seems simple enough, but mathematicians struggled for centuries to precisely define and understand it.

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explainers

How Maxwell’s Demon Continues to Startle Scientists

By Jonathan O'Callaghan
April 22, 2021
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The thorny thought experiment has been turned into a real experiment — one that physicists use to probe the physics of information.

Photo of radio telescopes at the Allen Telescope Array with a starry sky featuring the Milky Way in the background.
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How Radio Astronomy Reveals the Universe

By Emily Levesque
April 13, 2021
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Radio waves, longer and less energetic than visible light, give astronomers access to some of the most obscure physics in the cosmos.

Illustration showing a human figure sitting on a large straw, gazing at different topological figures.
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Topology 101: The Hole Truth

By David S. Richeson
January 26, 2021
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The relationships among the properties of flexible shapes have fascinated mathematicians for centuries.

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The NASA Engineer Who’s a Mathematician at Heart

By Susan D'Agostino
January 19, 2021
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Christine Darden worked at NASA for 40 years, helping make supersonic planes quieter and forging a path for women to follow in her footsteps.

Black and white photo of Claude Shannon in front of a computer
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How Claude Shannon Invented the Future

By David Tse
December 22, 2020
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Today’s information age is only possible thanks to the groundbreaking work of a lone genius.

Black and white historical photo of eight men in front of a building, including Henri Cartan, André Weil and Szolem Mandelbrojt.
Abstractions blog

Inside the Secret Math Society Known Simply as Nicolas Bourbaki

By Kevin Hartnett
November 9, 2020
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For almost a century, the anonymous members of Nicolas Bourbaki have written books intended as pure expressions of mathematical thought.

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Abstractions blog

How Mathematical ‘Hocus-Pocus’ Saved Particle Physics

By Charlie Wood
September 17, 2020
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Renormalization has become perhaps the single most important advance in theoretical physics in 50 years.

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When Math Gets Impossibly Hard

By David S. Richeson
September 14, 2020
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Mathematicians have long grappled with the reality that some problems just don’t have solutions.


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