Discrete mathematics is about precision in reasoning as much as it is about solving problems. Proof techniques like induction, contradiction, and direct reasoning are used to establish results in ...

Number theorist Andrew Granville on what mathematics really is — and why objectivity is never quite within reach. In 2012, the mathematician Shinichi Mochizuki claimed he had solved the abc conjecture ...

Some scientific discoveries matter because they reveal something new — the double helical structure of DNA, for example, or the existence of black holes. However, some revelations are profound because ...

Misconceptions about the nature and practice of science abound and are sometimes even held by otherwise respectable practicing scientists themselves. I have dispelled some of them (misconceptions, not ...

Prof. Emeritus William Walker Tait, an acclaimed philosopher and mathematician at the University of Chicago, died March 15 in Naperville, Ill. He was 95. Known by colleagues as one of the most ...