Mathematics

A comprehensive mathematical framework treats wrinkling patterns as elegant solutions to geometric problems.

A simple geometric idea has been used to power advances in information theory, cryptography and even blockchain technology.

Richard Rusczyk, founder of Art of Problem Solving, has a vision for bringing “joyous, beautiful math” — and problem-solving — to classrooms everywhere.

What’s a message, really? Claude Shannon recognized that the elemental ingredient is surprise.

Rethinking questions and chasing patterns led Newton to find the connection between curves and infinite sums.

Eric Larson and Isabel Vogt have solved the interpolation problem — a centuries-old question about some of the most basic objects in geometry. Some credit goes to the chalkboard in their living room.

Two researchers have broken an encryption protocol that many saw as a promising defense against the power of quantum computing.

In honor of the actor and activist Nichelle Nichols, this month’s puzzle imagines a Star Trek adventure in which her character, Lieutenant Uhura, faces a life-and-death conundrum.

Two mathematicians have proven Patterson’s conjecture, which was designed to explain a strange pattern in sums involving prime numbers.