Culture

What could have been an excellent documentary is marred by several glaring problems

Painter and mathematician Edward Belbruno inhabits both worlds with equal comfort

A recent excursion to Italy made it clear to students and professors alike that these things are interrelated

Bloom’s book The Anxiety of Influence helped a science writer understand the plight of modern scientists trying to surpass their predecessors

DNA from the teeth of medieval plague victims indicates the pathogen likely first arrived in eastern Europe before spreading across the continent.

A young philosopher finds philosophy consoling because it is impossible.

50 things to see in the night sky, untold stories of mathematical Americans, and more

People pair mathematical proofs with paintings and pieces of music similarly

Combining two types of machine intelligence could open new frontiers of art

Western ears consider a pitch at double the frequency of a lower pitch to be the same note, an octave higher. The Tsimane’, an indigenous people in the Bolivian Amazon basin, do not.

Physics historian Graham Farmelo talks about his latest book, The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Math Reveals Nature's Deepest Secrets.

Some big questions, such as how matter makes mind and what quantum mechanics means, may not have a single, definitive answer