Many of us could happily fold a paper crane, yet few feel confident solving an equation like x³ – 3 x² – x + 3 = 0, to find a value for x. Both activities, however, share similar skills: precision, ...

This article is part of a series explaining how readers can learn the skills to take part in activities that academics love doing as part of their work. Many of us could happily fold a paper crane, ...

Folding a flat piece of paper into a torus — a shape with a hole in the middle — demands origami skill. That’s something mathematician Richard Evan Schwartz lacks. Yet he answered a lingering ...

Every day I set aside time to transform sheets of paper into colorful origami hearts. My fingers fold the paper into a series of squares and triangles that are reliant on patience and precision. I ...

In 1936, the British mathematician Alan Turing came up with an idea for a universal computer. It was a simple device: an infinite strip of tape covered in zeros and ones, together with a machine that ...