Mathematics

By reimagining the kinks and folds of origami as atoms in a lattice, researchers are uncovering strange behavior hiding in simple structures.

Simple math can help scheming politicians manipulate district maps and cruise to victory. But it can also help identify and fix the problem.

Voevodsky’s friends remember him as constitutionally unable to compromise on the truth — a quality that led him to produce some of the most important mathematics of the 20th century.

A type of symmetry so unusual that it was called a “pariah” turns out to have deep connections to number theory.

Two mathematicians have proved that two different infinities are equal in size, settling a long-standing question. Their proof rests on a surprising link between the sizes of infinities and the complexity of mathematical theories.

To tell truth from fiction, start with quantitative thinking, argues the mathematician Rebecca Goldin.

The color of LED lights is controlled by a clumsy process. A new mathematical discovery may make it easier for us to get the hues we want.

The mathematician Svitlana Mayboroda and collaborators have figured out how to predict the behavior of electrons — a mathematical discovery that could have immediate practical effects.

To begin to understand what mathematicians and physicists see in the abstract structures of symmetries, let’s start with a familiar shape.