When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The Ishango bone, from Africa's Congo region, has dozens of parallel notches cut into its surface ...

Occasionally a reader suggests a topic for my column as with the above title. My thanks. This question is important because it applies to more than mathematics. For example, did Michelangelo create ...

The origins of the decimal point, something millions of people use daily, may be much older than we first thought. It was initially considered to have originated in 1593, having been used by German ...

This is episode two of a three-part series. You can listen to part one here and part three here. [CLIP: Theme music] Rachel Feltman: Ever wondered what math actually is? No? Well, mathematicians sure ...

Many people think that mathematics is a human invention. To this way of thinking, mathematics is like a language: it may describe real things in the world, but it doesn’t “exist” outside the minds of ...

Katie has a PhD in maths, specializing in the intersection of dynamical systems and number theory. She reports on topics from maths and history to society and animals. Katie has a PhD in maths, ...