Mathematics

A science fiction novelist and an internet commenter made breakthroughs on a longstanding problem about the number of ways you can arrange a set of items. What did they discover?

Several mathematicians under the age of 30 left their marks all over the field, and amateur problem-solvers of all ages made significant contributions to long-dormant puzzles.

In a Paris lab, researchers have shown for the first time that quantum methods of transmitting information are superior to classical ones.

Digital security depends on the difficulty of factoring large numbers. A new proof shows why one method for breaking digital encryption won’t work.

Equations, like numbers, cannot always be split into simpler elements.

Tadashi Tokieda discovers new physical phenomena by looking at the everyday world with the eyes of a child.

On November 16, 2018, more than 200 readers joined writers and editors from Quanta Magazine for a wide-ranging panel discussion that examined the newest ideas in fundamental physics, biology and mathematics research.

Through exacting geometric calculations, Philip Gibbs has found the smallest known cover for any possible shape.

Puzzle solvers explored how evolution may have used negative and positive control mechanisms to shape the conflicting parental functions of reproduction and child rearing.