The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. All of modern mathematics is built on the foundation of set theory, the study of how to organize abstract collections of objects. But in ...

Many professors spend years studying their chosen discipline within a formal academic setting in order to prepare for the challenge of educating others. Gloria Townsend took a less conventional path.

Even if you’ve never set foot inside a physics classroom, you probably have a pretty solid grasp of the laws governing how objects move and behave. Throw a basketball against a wall and it bounces off ...

Descriptive set theorists study the niche mathematics of infinity. Now, they’ve shown that their problems can be rewritten in the concrete language of algorithms. All of modern mathematics is built on ...