Math

Physicists, mathematicians and philosophers have been exploring the possibility of going forward to the future or back to the past

When the roads get crowded, many drivers start changing lanes. Mathematics suggests this intuition is typically wrong

Joan Birman popularized the Burau representation problem decades ago. Now she and two colleagues have a proof that reveals brand new insights into the geometry of braids

The 2026 Fields Medals recognize breakthroughs in the math of messy fluids, tangled knots, spinning pencils, and more

In an episode of the cartoon, a machine lets characters swap bodies, but they can’t switch back with the same person. Math helps all the characters return to their original bodies

A new breakthrough pushes the limits of randomness, bringing a decades-old mathematical mystery closer to resolution

What’s the secret to prompting an AI to solve math problems that have left humans stumped? Tell it to believe in itself

The signature of Sak Tahn Waax, or “White-Chested Fox,” was found inscribed in a 1,000-year-old chamber beneath present-day Guatemala

A 23-year-old student overturned an ancient conjecture about one of math’s simplest operations

During World War II, statistics helped the Allies estimate the number of enemy tanks, which proved essential in the decisive move against Nazi Germany

Here’s how Emmy Noether’s theorem uses the Lagrangian to provide a formula for calculating the quantity of symmetries in a system—like the orbit of planets

Noether's work helped prove the conservation of energy in physics, a key foundation for Einstein's theory of relativity