"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Fano varieties are known as the basic “atomic structure” of geometry, but are notoriously difficult to ...

Often when describing patterns, they are placed in one of two categories: organic or geometric. Organic designs are ones ...

Bird beaks come in almost every shape and size—from the straw-like beak of a hummingbird to the slicing, knife-like beak of an eagle. We have found, however, that this incredible diversity is ...

The same researchers behind the 13-sided "hat" shape have stumbled upon a version that improves upon the original in a very important way. Reading time 2 minutes In March, a group of mathematicians ...

On August 10, 1632, only 10 months before the Roman Inquisition condemned Galileo Galilei for his advocacy of Copernican astronomy, five Jesuits met in Rome to discuss a seemingly arcane point: Is a ...

Scientists studying graphene’s properties are using a new mathematical framework to make extremely accurate characterizations of the two-dimensional material’s shape. Graphene, discovered in 2004, is ...

In nature, many things have evolved that differ in size, color and, above all, in shape. While the color or size of an object can be easily described, the description of a shape is more complicated.

Fields Medal-winning mathematician Bill Thurston’s mathematical influence can be seen in a number of places: Textbooks, journal articles, in university classrooms, and in one rather unusual place: On ...

The apple gets its 'dimple-like cusp' and shape as a result of different rates of growth between the bulk and the stalk, according to a new mathematical study of the fruit. Apples are relatively ...