While building a simpler model for particle interactions, physicists found a new representation involving pi—not a new value ...

Last week, I introduced Emmy Noether, an extraordinary figure in the fields of mathematics and physics. To understand Noether’s reasoning, we need to talk a bit more about the fundamentals of ...

The currents of the oceans, the roiling surface of the sun, and the clouds of smoke billowing off a forest fire—all are governed by the same laws of physics and give rise to a complex phenomenon known ...

Mathematics is full of weird number systems that most people have never heard of and would have trouble even conceptualizing. But rational numbers are familiar. They’re the counting numbers and the ...

Many books about science are meant to be pleasure reading. Such books attempt to convey the wonder and fascination and excitement of science, and ideally some of the substance as well. After all, good ...