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Mathematics

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To Pack Spheres Tightly, Mathematicians Throw Them at Random

April 30, 2024

Four mathematicians broke a 75-year-old record by finding a denser way to pack high-dimensional spheres.

Mathematicians Marvel at ‘Crazy’ Cuts Through Four Dimensions

April 22, 2024

Topologists prove two new results that bring some order to the confoundingly difficult study of four-dimensional shapes.

Geometers Engineer New Tools to Wrangle Spacecraft Orbits

April 15, 2024

Mathematicians think abstract tools from a field called symplectic geometry might help with planning missions to far-off moons and planets.

Number of Distances Separating Points Has a New Bound

April 9, 2024

Mathematicians have struggled to prove Falconer’s Conjecture, a simple, but far-reaching, hypothesis about the distances between points. They’re finally getting close.

Merging Fields, Mathematicians Go the Distance on Old Problem

April 1, 2024

Mathematicians have illuminated what sets of points can look like if the distances between them are all whole numbers.

Topologists Tackle the Trouble With Poll Placement

March 26, 2024

Mathematicians are using topological abstractions to find places where it’s hard to vote.

Math That Connects Where We’re Going to Where We’ve Been

March 22, 2024

Recursion builds bridges between ideas from across different math classes and illustrates the power of creative mathematical thinking.

Michel Talagrand Wins Abel Prize for Work Wrangling Randomness

March 20, 2024

The French mathematician spent decades developing a set of tools now widely used for taming random processes.

Q&A

‘The Rest of the World Disappears’: Claire Voisin on Mathematical Creativity

March 13, 2024

The recipient of the 2024 Crafoord Prize in Mathematics discusses math as art, math as language, and math as abstract thought.

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