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Exposure to a virus isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition. The concept of “infectious dose” suggests ways to keep ourselves safer from harm.

Sticking out your tongue while doing delicate work with your hands reveals a history of evolutionary relationships.

For over a century, biologists have had to contend with a complicated picture of genetics, which they’ve only recently begun to understand.

Knowing a little about the local connections on flight maps and other networks can reveal a lot about a system’s global structure.

Transcendental numbers include famous examples like e and π, but it took mathematicians centuries to understand them.

Simple math can help explain the complexities of the newly discovered aperiodic monotile.

In all bilaterally symmetrical animals, from humans down to simple worms, nerves cross from one side of the body to the opposite side of the brain. Geometry may explain why.

The four-color problem is simple to explain, but its complex proof continues to be both celebrated and despised.

Learn why the quadratic formula works and why quadratics are easier to solve than cubics.