The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. A new proof has brought mathematicians one step closer to understanding the hidden order of those “atoms of arithmetic,” the prime ...

Infants and animals are able to understand approximate quantities of different types, in terms of relative proportions of the numbers of different sets of objects, provided the difference in numbers ...

A red knot is a tiny shorebird that makes an epic 9000-mile journey all the way from the arctic to the tip of southern Chile and back. Biologists and nature enthusiasts congregate at various points ...

Parents typically start teaching their children to count at an early age: one fish two fish, three little pigs, five little monkeys, and so on. Research has shown that kids don’t fully understand the ...

The number zero was a relatively recent and crucial addition − it allows numbers to extend in both directions forever. pixel_dreams/iStock via Getty Images Plus Here’s a game: Ask a friend to give you ...

What is your favorite number? For many people, it may be an irrational number such as pi (π), Euler’s number (e) or the square root of 2. Even among the natural numbers (positive integers), there are ...