Column

  1. Math

    Crystal Möbius

    Take a ribbon of paper, twist one end 180 degrees, and attach it to the other end. The resulting surface, called a Möbius strip, has only one side and one edge. Scanning electron microscope image shows niobium selenide crystals in a Möbius-strip conformation (top). In the schematic diagram (bottom), a white ribbon represents a niobium […]

    By Ivars Peterson
  2. Math

    A Lawyer’s Math Library

    “Strangely enough, anyone wishing to write about Galois in Paris would do well to journey to Louisville, Kentucky.”–Leopold Infeld, Whom the Gods Love LOUISVILLE, KY. French mathematician Evariste Galois (1811–1832), whose death in a duel at the age of 20 cut short a remarkably productive career, is only one of many mathematicians represented in a […]

    By Ivars Peterson
  3. Math

    Song-and-Dance Fermat

    The proof of a mathematical conjecture–even one as famous as Fermat’s last theorem–may sound like an improbable subject for an off-Broadway-style musical.