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Symmetry

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‘Groups’ Underpin Modern Math. Here’s How They Work.

September 6, 2024

What do the integers have in common with the symmetries of a triangle? In the 19th century, mathematicians invented groups as an answer to this question.

What Can Tiling Patterns Teach Us?

July 3, 2024

If you cover a surface with tiles, repetitive patterns always emerge — or do they? In this week’s episode, mathematician Natalie Priebe Frank and co-host Janna Levin discuss how recent breakthroughs in tiling can unlock structural secrets in the natural world.

Why Is This Shape So Terrible to Pack?

June 28, 2024

Two mathematicians have proved a long-standing conjecture that is a step on the way toward finding the worst shape for packing the plane.

What Is the Nature of Time?

February 29, 2024

Time is all around us: in the language we use, in the memories we revisit and in our predictions of the future. But what exactly is it? The physicist and Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek joins Steve Strogatz to discuss the fundamental hallmarks of time.

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The Mathematician Who Finds the Poetry in Math and the Math in Poetry

January 12, 2024

The links between math, music and art have been explored for thousands of years. Sarah Hart is now turning a mathematical eye to literature.

A Brief History of Tricky Mathematical Tiling

October 30, 2023

The discovery earlier this year of the “hat” tile marked the culmination of hundreds of years of work into tiles and their symmetries.

Biophysicists Uncover Powerful Symmetries in Living Tissue

October 25, 2023

After identifying interlocking symmetries in mammalian cells, scientists can describe some tissues as liquid crystals — an observation that lays the groundwork for a fluid-dynamic theory of how tissues move.

Echoes of Electromagnetism Found in Number Theory

October 12, 2023

A new magnum opus posits the existence of a hidden mathematical link akin to the connection between electricity and magnetism.

Behold Modular Forms, the ‘Fifth Fundamental Operation’ of Math

September 21, 2023

Modular forms are one of the most beautiful and mysterious objects in mathematics. What are they?

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