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Perplexing the Web, One Probability Puzzle at a Time

August 29, 2024

The mathematician Daniel Litt has driven social media users to distraction with a series of simple-seeming but counterintuitive probability puzzles.

Michel Talagrand Wins Abel Prize for Work Wrangling Randomness

March 20, 2024

The French mathematician spent decades developing a set of tools now widely used for taming random processes.

Maze Proof Establishes a ‘Backbone’ for Statistical Mechanics

February 7, 2024

Four mathematicians have estimated the chances that there’s a clear path through a random maze.

The Surprisingly Simple Math Behind Puzzling Matchups

January 25, 2024

If Anna beats Benji in a game and Benji beats Carl, will Anna beat Carl?

A Close-Up View Reveals the ‘Melting’ Point of an Infinite Graph

December 18, 2023

Just as ice melts to water, graphs undergo phase transitions. Two mathematicians showed that they can pinpoint such transitions by examining only local structure.

Mathematicians Roll Dice and Get Rock-Paper-Scissors

January 19, 2023

Mathematicians have uncovered a surprising wealth of rock-paper-scissors-like patterns in randomly chosen dice.

Probability and Number Theory Collide — in a Moment

January 12, 2023

Mathematicians are taking ideas developed to study random numbers and applying them to a broad range of categories.

How Do Mathematicians Know Their Proofs Are Correct?

July 13, 2022

What makes a proof stronger than a guess? What does evidence look like in the realm of mathematical abstraction? Hear the mathematician Melanie Matchett Wood explain how probability helps to guide number theorists toward certainty.

Elegant Six-Page Proof Reveals the Emergence of Random Structure

April 25, 2022

Two young mathematicians have astonished their colleagues with a full proof of the Kahn-Kalai conjecture — a sweeping statement about how structure emerges in random sets and graphs.

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