The Fundamental Tension at the Heart of Math

Quanta Science Podcast by Quanta Magazine

Apr 7, 202628:40Science & Medicine

We tend to think of math as all about logic and rigor. But what “rigor” actually means has been shaken up quite a few times over the past few centuries. The newest attempt to formalize math comes in the form of the compu...

Related Episodes

Continue listening to more episodes from Quanta Science Podcast.

Four-Color Theorem Is Still a Math Favorite

Sep 15, 2026 - 29:38

In 1852, the mathematician Francis Guthrie was coloring in a map of English counties when he noticed that...

Does Computer Science Need Computers?

Sep 8, 2026 - 29:31

In popular culture, computer science is practically synonymous with programming. There are obviously bran...

How the Brain Compresses Our Noisy World

Sep 1, 2026 - 31:11

If you are well rested and full, your brain tells you that a bruised overripe apple is a piece of subpar...

Picking Teams With the Math of Imbalance

Aug 25, 2026 - 31:07

Combinatorial discrepancy theory is a branch of mathematics concerned with balance. If you’re making two...

What Makes a Fluid a Fluid?

Aug 18, 2026 - 36:00

The Navier-Stokes equations are enormously successful at predicting how fluids flow and swirl. But they f...

Is AI Reasoning Right for the Wrong Reasons?

Aug 11, 2026 - 38:02

Reasoning comes in many technically defined forms, but the basic procedure is easily recognizable: arrivi...

Why Am I Left-Handed?

Aug 4, 2026 - 26:26

Why are only 10% of people left-handed? Geneticists, developmental biologists, neuroscientists, and evolu...

Is Life Just Different?

Jul 21, 2026 - 35:49

There’s no scientific consensus about what makes living things so different from inorganic material. Some...