Mathematics

A cryptographic master tool called indistinguishability obfuscation has for years seemed too good to be true. Three researchers have figured out that it can work.

For almost a century, the anonymous members of Nicolas Bourbaki have written books intended as pure expressions of mathematical thought.

David Conlon and Asaf Ferber have raised the lower bound for multicolor “Ramsey numbers,” which quantify how big graphs can get before patterns inevitably emerge.

From crumpled paper to termite mounds to three-sided coins, L. Mahadevan has turned the whole world into his laboratory.

The p-adics form an infinite collection of number systems based on prime numbers. They’re at the heart of modern number theory.

Have fun exploring a numerical puzzle, a geometric puzzle and a game of random patterns, all inspired by the playful genius of the legendary mathematician.

After 44 years, there’s finally a better way to find approximate solutions to the notoriously difficult traveling salesperson problem.

A small community of mathematicians is using a software program called Lean to build a new digital repository. They hope it represents the future of their field.

Despite recent progress on the notorious Collatz conjecture, we still don’t know whether a number can escape its infinite loop.