Quanta Magazine's stories of mathematical explorations show that inspiration strikes
willy-nilly ” revealing surprising solutions and exciting discoveries. If you're a science and
data nerd like me you may be interested in Alice and Bob Meet the Wall of Fire and The Prime
Number Conspiracy from Quanta Magazine and Thomas Lin. - Bill Gates These stories from Quanta
Magazine map the routes of mathematical exploration showing readers how cutting-edge research
is done while illuminating the productive tension between conjecture and proof theory and
intuition. The stories show that as James Gleick puts it in the foreword inspiration strikes
willy-nilly.” One researcher thinks of quantum chaotic systems at a bus stop another suddenly
realizes a path to proving a theorem of number theory while in a friend's backyard a
statistician has a bathroom sink epiphany” and discovers the key to solving the Gaussian
correlation inequality. Readers of The Prime Number Conspiracy says Quanta editor-in-chief
Thomas Lin are headed on breathtaking intellectual journeys to the bleeding edge of discovery
strapped to the narrative rocket of humanity's never-ending pursuit of knowledge.” Quanta is
the only popular publication that offers in-depth coverage of the latest breakthroughs in
understanding our mathematical universe. It communicates mathematics by taking it seriously
wrestling with difficult concepts and clearly explaining them in a way that speaks to our
innate curiosity about our world and ourselves. Readers of this volume will learn that prime
numbers have decided preferences about the final digits of the primes that immediately follow
them (the conspiracy” of the title) consider whether math is the universal language of nature
(allowing for a unified theory of randomness”) discover surprising solutions (including a
pentagon tiling proof that solves a century-old math problem) ponder the limits of computation
measure infinity and explore the eternal question Is mathematics good for you?” Contributors
Ariel Bleicher Robbert Dijkgraaf Kevin Hartnett Erica Klarreich Thomas Lin John Pavlus
Siobhan Roberts Natalie Wolchover Copublished with Quanta Magazine
