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How to Use a Sphere to Talk to Mars
To avoid garbled messages, mathematicians might translate them into geometric form.
A New Path to Equal-Angle Lines
Equiangular lines are an elemental part of geometry. Mathematicians have discovered a tighter limit on the number of such lines that exist in every dimension.
Is It Friday the 13th Again?
How our society defines years, months and weeks can seem frustratingly arbitrary. Can you bring order to our unruly calendar?
Physicists Attack Math’s $1,000,000 Question
Physicists are attempting to map the distribution of the prime numbers to the energy levels of a particular quantum system.
How to Quantify (and Fight) Gerrymandering
Powerful new quantitative tools are now available to combat partisan bias in the drawing of voting districts.
Solution: ‘A Ticking Evolutionary Clock’
How to calculate when a gene’s rate of evolution will slow to a crawl.
Quantum Questions Inspire New Math
In order to fully understand the quantum world, we may have to develop a new realm of mathematics.
A Long-Sought Proof, Found and Almost Lost
When a German retiree proved a famous long-standing mathematical conjecture, the response was underwhelming.
A New Blast May Have Forged Cosmic Gold
For decades, researchers believed that violent supernovas forged gold and other heavy elements. But many now argue for a different cosmic quarry.