history of mathematics

Cambridge joins Black History Month celebrations with an event showcasing the contributions of black mathematicians.

Wim Hordijk recently sent us a digital postcard from Vienna, where he had traced the steps of the eminent mathematician Kurt Gödel. Here is what he discovered.

Choose your favourite mathematician of all time and celebrate them in an article, video or multi-media project.

A hundred years ago Ramanujan was elected FRS. Here is a look at the maths that gained him the title.

Will sophisticated algorithms one day replace mathematicians?

Mathematicians like to think that their field transcends politics, but as this brief history of the International Congress of Mathematicians shows, international mathematics has always been coloured by world events.

A quick introduction to transcendental numbers, a famous problem which relates to them, and how the person who solved it became a victim of political tensions.

Write an article, make a movie, or create a multi-media presentation to explore the world of maths and win prizes!

David Spiegelhalter, one of our favourite experts on statistics, recently joined David Attenborough, Bill Bryson and other eminent contributors on the Royal Society's People of Science series. You can watch the video here.

How Heron of Alexandria missed his chance to explore the unknown mathematical land of complex numbers.

This talk traces the history of zero, looks at its role in maths and science, and even finds a link to the London Underground map.