Science in Defiance of the Tsar: The Women of the 1860s
Sofia Kovalevskaia became the first woman in Europe to obtain her doctorate in mathematics—but only after leaving Russia for Germany.
String Theory Is Not Dead
Out of the limelight, theoretical physicists seek the math that can explain the universe’s particles and forces.
Archimedes Rediscovered: Technology and Ancient History
Advanced imaging technologies help scholars reveal and share lost texts from the ancient world.
Doing Math with Intellectual Humility
Math class is an opportunity to teach students both how to use conjecture to arrive at knowledge and how to learn from the logic of peers.
The Mathematical Pranksters behind Nicolas Bourbaki
Bourbaki was gnomic and mythical, impossible to pin down; his mathematics just the opposite: unified, unambiguous, free of human idiosyncrasy.
Florence Nightingale, Data Visualization Visionary
The woman who revolutionized nursing was also a mathematician who knew the power of a visible representation of information.
The Quantum Random Number Generator
It’s real. And it will use quantum entanglement to generate true mathematical randomness. Here’s why that matters.
The Woman Who Found the Earth’s Inner Core
Inge Lehmann was the seismologist and mathematician who figured out what the Earth's core was actually made of.
The Math Behind the Perfect Free Throw
The fate of a free throw is set the instant the ball leaves the player’s fingertips.