A new study reveals that Srinivasa Ramanujan’s century-old formulas for calculating pi unexpectedly emerge within modern theories of critical phenomena, turbulence, and black holes. In school, many of ...

Quantum theory and general relativity have long described the universe with incompatible languages, one speaking in ...

Most of us first hear about the irrational number π (pi)—rounded off as 3.14, with an infinite number of decimal digits—in ...

Ramanujan's pi-computing machinery exactly mirrors the necessary structure in modern physical theories (LCFTs).

Breakthroughs in physics sometimes require an assist from the field of mathematics—and vice versa. In 1912, Albert Einstein, then a 33-year-old theoretical physicist at the Eidgenössische Technische ...

Mathematics is full of weird number systems that most people have never heard of and would have trouble even conceptualizing. But rational numbers are familiar. They’re the counting numbers and the ...

This article is the first part of a series about quantum field theory published by Quanta Magazine. Other stories in the series can be found here. Over the past century, quantum field theory has ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. GrrlScientist writes about evolution, ecology, behavior and health. Those of you who have been following my writing for a few ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. The Universe is out there, waiting for you to discover it. When it comes to describing the physical world, we can do it ...

Imagine standing on top of a mountain. From this vantage point, we can see picturesque valleys and majestic ridges below, and streams wind their way downhill. If a drop of rain falls somewhere on this ...