
What Does Compactness Really Mean?
It took me a long time to understand the mysterious mathematical property of compactness

What Does Compactness Really Mean?
It took me a long time to understand the mysterious mathematical property of compactness

Harnessing Serendipity
Innovation is critical to sustained economic growth—and mathematics can help us understand how it works


The Sneaky Danger of Space Dust
When tiny particles of space debris slam into satellites, the collision could cause the emission of hardware-frying radiation. Christopher Intagliata reports.

Is There a Link between Music and Math?
Nadine Gaab, an associate professor of pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and Jennifer Zuk, a doctoral student at Harvard University, answer:

A Few of My Favorite Spaces: The Douady Rabbit
Come for the fractals. Stay for the bunny puns

Math under My Feet
I took a walk and tripped—almost literally—over a beautiful octagonal tiling

Wrong in Public: the Paris Streets Edition
Rue Sophie Germain is not the only Paris street named for a mathématicienne

Shoelace Study Untangles a Knotty Problem
Researchers have trotted out data that show a combination of whipping and stomping forces is what causes laces to unravel without warning. Karen Hopkin reports.

The Simple Math behind Crunching the Sizes of Crowds
How large was the crowd at the recent U.S. presidential inauguration? Or the inauguration eight years ago? Keep on reading to find out how crowd sizes are estimated

Probing the Great Unknown
Are there are questions in science and mathematics that by their very nature are unanswerable?

Watch Live Today: Exploring Pure Mathematics Through Baking [Video]
Mathematician Eugenia Cheng will describe how cooking can offer insight into abstract math

Thank You, Sophie, and I'm Sorry
I wish we got to read a different story about Sophie Germain