From Aryabhata’s concept of zero and Euclid’s geometryto the principles that later powered modern computer science, mathematics has been shaped by thinkers across eras. This particular list focuses on ...

Sometimes work in one discipline of pure mathematics has a completely unexpected payoff in another. Some of the famous mathematician Pierre de Fermat’s (1601–1665) work in number theory bears this out ...

Gauss came from extremely humble origins. His grandfather was a landless peasant; his father was a jobbing gardener and bricklayer. Gauss attended the poorest kind of local school. A famous incident, ...