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The theoretical particle physicist Ann Nelson, who died on August 4 at age 61, was a font of brilliant ideas and a champion of ending discrimination in the field.
Polynomials aren’t just exercises in abstraction. They’re good at illuminating structure in surprising places.
Decades after the landmark proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem, ideas abound for how to make it even more reliable. But such efforts reflect a deep misunderstanding of what makes the proof so important.
A little high school geometry can help you understand the basic math behind movie recommendation engines.
It’s an educated guess, not a proof. But a good conjecture will guide math forward, pointing the way into the mathematical unknown.
The astrophysicist Janna Levin reflects on the newly unveiled, first-ever photograph of a black hole.
Just how fast can the fastest human run? This adapted book excerpt from Infinite Powers reveals how calculus helps us investigate the nature of motion and change.
In mathematics, where proofs are everything, evidence is important too. But evidence is only as good as the model, and modeling can be dangerous business. So how much evidence is enough?
Perfect black holes are versatile mathematical tools. Just don’t mistake them for the real thing.