Famous figures
Portraits of famous mathematicians, historical and contemporary
Greenhouse gases: the paradoxes of transport
Greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. Quantifying the share attributable to road transport is no simple matter—and reducing it is harder still!
Save fuel: bet on tires! | Tangente
In an unusual turn of events, the Industry category of the 2018 European Inventor Award, presented by the European Patent Office, has gone to a French mathematician.
The Leslie model
Modeling changes in an animal population is a frequently studied topic in mathematics and biology. But how can we account for the fact that individuals produce different numbers of offspring depending on their age? The Leslie model addresses these questions.
Blake and Mortimer: mathematics in the comics
Scientists are rare among comic-book heroes. Mathematicians are rarer still! One of the most famous scientists among them is Professor Philip Mortimer, from the "Blake and Mortimer" series. Let's examine his relationship with the queen of the sciences.
Mathematicians killed at the front: Gâteaux, Levi and others
Mathematicians, too, paid a heavy price in the Great War, leaving the scientific world with irreparable losses.
The Great War and European mathematics
The deadly conflict of the First World War shattered international academic cooperation. It also took a devastating human toll, killing many scientists who had seemed destined for brilliant careers. Finally, it profoundly altered the place of mathematics in France.
The Archimedean hairspring at the heart of watchmaking
Once again, we turn to a "spiral"—not in a field or on a canvas, but… inside a watch.
Houria Lafrance honored for promoting mathematics
A tireless mathematics popularizer has just been honored. Houria Lafrance, president of the association "Les maths en scène," has been appointed a Knight of the National Order of Merit.
Emmanuel Houdard: Walloon of the Year for mathematics
The 2017 Walloon of the Year Award has just been presented to mathematics teacher Emmanuel Houdart, director of the Maison des maths in Quaregnon, Hainaut, Belgium, near the French border.
André-Louis Cholesky: soldier-scholar and algebraist
In numerical analysis, the Cholesky method is a celebrated example of a scientific discovery made in one field—military geodesy—that went on to find applications in an ever-growing number of others.
Statistical fluctuations: beware small samples
Extracting knowledge from a mass of homogeneous data is the province of statistics. Yet it is quite an art: the conclusions must be treated with care! Small fluctuations around the mean can invalidate an entire line of reasoning. Let us learn how to spot them.
A guided tour of the Panthéon of mathematics
Visiting Paris with your family or a school group, you may be looking for mathematically themed attractions. The Panthéon is unlikely to spring to mind… Yet this monument celebrating the nation's great figures is full of surprises! Follow the guide.
Villani–Torossian report: 21 measures for mathematics
The press has covered it extensively: a report has just been submitted to the Minister of National Education, recommending 21 measures to improve mathematics teaching in France. We take a closer look.
Objects that embody knowledge
A mathematical object is a concept arising from... mathematics. The objects featured in this saga are physical ones, of interest not only mathematically but also historically, educationally and aesthetically. They illustrate concepts and make them easier to understand.
Taking action against gender stereotypes
We met Véronique Slovacek-Chauveau and Annick Boisseau, the vice-president and secretary, respectively, of Femmes et mathématiques, who kindly agreed to answer our questions.
Gender balance in mathematics: an urgent priority
Although progress has been made in recent years, women remain underrepresented among those who use mathematics, from high school through to highly skilled scientific jobs. What lies behind this imbalance?
The women shattering the glass ceiling
Women are underrepresented in scientific careers and leadership positions. Yet some are at the helm of organizations across the mathematical world. We shine a spotlight on the women leading associations, learned societies, businesses and more.
Fibonacci in concrete art: mathematics and aesthetics
The famous Fibonacci sequence begins 1, 1, 2… and each term is the sum of the previous two. It abounds in surprising properties. Has it finally yielded all its secrets? That remains a mystery, as some artists are now working with it and exploring it from every angle.
Heron in space
Heron's formula extends to quadrilaterals and tetrahedra, as well as to all polyhedra, yielding many applications that remain relevant today.
Cédric Villani at his best: lectures
Despite an extremely busy schedule, our most mathematically minded MP still pursues a few mathematics outreach activities...