Stories by Manon Bischoff

In the early 20th century, a mathematician and economist sought the optimal strategy for Holmes to escape Moriarty’s pursuit

Nothing in the cosmos is in equilibrium, which means entropy is on the rise

Meet micromorts and microlives, statistical units that help mathematicians to calculate risk

Astronomical amounts of energy could be extracted from black holes—to build a gigantic bomb, for example. Experts have now implemented this principle in the laboratory

Conceptual problems, ideology clashes and xenophobia prevented the concept of zero from catching on for a long time. Today all mathematics is based on it

The popular fantasy card game Magic: The Gathering has a new card related to prime numbers. Now fans are trying to use it to tackle one of the biggest problems in mathematics

The world-famous mathematician Alan Turing found a possible mechanism for iconic animal patterns thanks to differential equations

A little math from the 1600s can make what people send to a printer more vulnerable

By solving part of the Langlands program, a mathematical proof that was long thought to be unachievable, Dennis Gaitsgory snags a prestigious Breakthrough Prize

For a long time, the Kakeya conjecture, which involves rotating an infinitely narrow needle, kept mathematicians guessing—until now

Masaki Kashiwara, this year’s Abel Prize winner, co-founded a new field of mathematics called algebraic analysis

Most movies follow one of six emotional arcs. Which one sells the most tickets?

When a fan of a cult anime series wanted to watch its episodes in every possible order, they asked a question that had perplexed combinatorial mathematicians for years

A physicist weighs in on the fluid feline meme

Math enthusiasts challenge one another to find special prime numbers, including those that are palindromes and Smarandache numbers

The proof that the Apéry constant is irrational remains one of the most bizarre events in the history of mathematics

A mathematician has calculated the ideal shape for a beer glass to keep the liquid inside as cool as possible

Physicists have described a system that requires an incomputable number to fully understand, another example of the provably unprovable puzzles of mathematics

The unexpected discovery of a geometric phase shows how math and physics are tightly intertwined

When voters decide between two alternatives, as is effectively the case in the U.S. presidential election, it usually comes down to a neck-and-neck race. Researchers can now explain this mathematically

A surprisingly simple concept shook the foundations of mathematics

Physicists showed that photons can seem to exit a material before entering it, revealing observational evidence of negative time

Some researchers dream of solving all mysteries with a common method—but a mathematical paradox may keep such solutions out of reach

The spin of a particle seems to detach and move without a body—a strange experimental observation that’s stirring up debate