Topology

Modern mathematics relies on collaboration and travel. COVID-19 is making it increasingly difficult.

The legendary mathematician, who died on April 11, was curious, colorful and one of the greatest problem-solvers of his generation.

When 50 mathematicians spend a week in the woods, there’s no telling what will happen. And that’s the point.

Explore our surprisingly simple, absurdly ambitious and necessarily incomplete guide to the boundless mathematical universe.

Mathematicians have studied knots for centuries, but a new material is showing why some knots are better than others.

New work on the problem of “scissors congruence” explains when it’s possible to slice up one shape and reassemble it as another.

Two monumental works have led many mathematicians to avoid the equal sign. The process has not always gone smoothly.

A new proof shows why an uncountably infinite number of Möbius strips will never fit into a three-dimensional space.

As chemists tie the most complicated molecular knot yet, biophysicists create a “periodic table” that describes what kinds of knots are possible.