The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. David Bessis was drawn to mathematics for the same reason that many people are driven away: He didn’t understand how it worked. Unlike ...

Research in mathematics is a deeply imaginative and intuitive process. This might come as a surprise for those who are still recovering from high-school algebra. What does the world look like at the ...

University of Florida provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation US. Math can’t catch a break. These days, people on both ends of the political spectrum are lining up to deride the ...

There’s a line from the original Star Trek where Khan says, “Improve a mechanical device and you may double productivity, but improve man and you gain a thousandfold.” Joan Horvath and Rich Cameron ...

, “we would be unable to build a skyscraper, hold a national election, plan a wedding, or pay for a chicken at the market.” The central role of numbers in our world testifies to the brain’s uncanny ...