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Mathematicians Identify the Best Versions of Iconic Shapes

January 5, 2024

Researchers are discovering the shortest knots and fattest Möbius strips, among other “optimal shapes.”

In the ‘Wild West’ of Geometry, Mathematicians Redefine the Sphere

November 7, 2023

High-dimensional spheres can have a much wider variety of structures than mathematicians thought possible.

The Mathematician Who Sculpted the Shape of Space

October 16, 2023

Eugenio Calabi, who died on September 25, conceived of novel geometric objects that later became fundamental to string theory.

An Old Conjecture Falls, Making Spheres a Lot More Complicated

August 22, 2023

The telescope conjecture gave mathematicians a handle on ways to map one sphere to another. Now that it has been disproved, the universe of shapes has exploded.

How Quantum Physicists Explained Earth’s Oscillating Weather Patterns

July 18, 2023

By treating Earth as a topological insulator — a state of quantum matter — physicists found a powerful explanation for the movements of the planet’s air and seas.

Flow Proof Helps Mathematicians Find Stability in Chaos

June 15, 2023

A series of new papers describes how to fully characterize key dynamical systems with relatively little data.

Why the Brain’s Connections to the Body Are Crisscrossed

April 19, 2023

In all bilaterally symmetrical animals, from humans down to simple worms, nerves cross from one side of the body to the opposite side of the brain. Geometry may explain why.

A New Kind of Symmetry Shakes Up Physics

April 18, 2023

So-called “higher symmetries” are illuminating everything from particle decays to the behavior of complex quantum systems.

Q&A

Emmy Murphy Is a Mathematician Who Finds Beauty in Flexibility

March 27, 2023

The prize-winning geometer feels most fulfilled when exploring the fertile ground where constraint meets creation.

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