Stories by Manon Bischoff

For years, a French mathematician searched for a proof that a gigantic number is prime. His method is still used 150 years later

What would the world look like if we changed the value of pi? Whether in the real world or a game environment, the answer is complex

In certain circumstances, losses create a sure path to victory, an idea with implications for biology and cancer therapy

Is it really possible that half of all people who have ever been age 65 or older are still alive today? We explore the amazing mathematics of demography to find out

Card dealers create a unique deck with each shuffle, something computers cannot replicate

People in prisons and jails have contributed to some of the greatest ideas in mathematics

Can “finitism” possibly describe the real world?

How complex can a simple game be? Tetris pushes even supercomputers to their limits and amazes mathematicians

Why do computers only work with the numbers 0 and 1? There are machines that process three digits with more efficiency than you might expect

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