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A Mathematician Who Fled to Freedom but Still Faces Doubts
Svetlana Jitomirskaya was born in Ukraine, but left the Soviet Union to escape sexism and antisemitism. Even though her work in mathematical physics has now been honored with one of the field’s top prizes, she finds herself still fighting old battles.
Why Mathematicians Study Knots
Far from being an abstract mathematical curiosity, knot theory has driven many findings in math and beyond.
The Many Ways to Win at Wordle (Without Cheating)
Solve these puzzle questions to level up your Wordle game.
Mathematicians Discover the Fibonacci Numbers Hiding in Strange Spaces
Recent explorations of unique geometric worlds reveal perplexing patterns, including the Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio.
Teenager Solves Stubborn Riddle About Prime Number Look-Alikes
In his senior year of high school, Daniel Larsen proved a key theorem about Carmichael numbers — strange entities that mimic the primes.
‘Monumental’ Math Proof Solves Triple Bubble Problem and More
The decades-old Sullivan’s conjecture, about the best way to minimize the surface area of a bubble cluster, was thought to be out of reach for three bubbles and up — until a new breakthrough result.
How Star Trek’s Lieutenant Uhura Overcame Astronomical Odds
Readers rescued a Star Trek crew from a probabilistic predicament armed only with the power of mathematical reasoning.
How Big Is Infinity?
Of all the endless questions children and mathematicians have asked about infinity, one of the biggest has to do with its size.
The New Math of Wrinkling
A comprehensive mathematical framework treats wrinkling patterns as elegant solutions to geometric problems.