Math
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Math
Sensitivity to the harmony of things
The work of Alexandre Grothendieck has transformed math the way the Internet has transformed communication: Once you’re used to it, you can’t imagine what life was like before it.
- Math
Less is more
Researchers have shown that a grip that’s too tight can be counterproductive, especially on a microscopic object — but the findings could apply to fields ranging from ecology to sociology.
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- Math
Still debating with Plato
Mathematicians debate whether mathematical truths are discovered or invented.
- Math
The Noisy Game of Baseball
Predicting a baseball player's future batting average (and many other things) is not as simple as relying on past performance, mathematicians say.
- Math
Creeping Up on Riemann
Theorists find the first example of an elusive complex function that just may help them solve the biggest problem in mathematics.
- Math
Humanitarian Statistics
From Iraq to Sierra Leone to New Orleans, statistical tools help guide responses to human rights crises.
- Math
Sacred Geometry
Beginning in the 17th century, the Japanese adorned temples with beautiful wooden tablets that depicted mathematical questions and theorems, apparently as offerings to the gods.
- Math
Spoil-Proofing Elections
The only way to ensure that the person the voters prefer walks away the winner, mathematicians say, is to fundamentally change voting procedures.
- Math
The Geometry of Music
Music is an audible exploration of hyperdimensional geometries, according to new research.
- Math
A Mathematical Tragedy
Sophie Germain had a bold program to prove Fermat's Last Theorem, but it was doomed to fail.
- Math
An Attack on Fermat
The first female research mathematician had a program to solve Fermat's Last Theorem, and it was almost lost to history.
