Mathematical Themes
Explore the major mathematical themes: geometry, algebra, analysis, arithmetic, logic, and many other fascinating fields.
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?
Health and Big Data: AI in the fight against cancer
Big Data has many applications in medicine, from clinical practice and research to epidemiological surveillance
Big Data and insurance: the value of massive datasets
The press sometimes claims that insurers' access to ever-larger databases will soon enable them to assess each customer's risk perfectly and set a perfectly tailored premium. This new paradigm might even spell the end of insurance itself! But is that really so?
Interpreting Big Data statistics correctly
Big Data's vast resources are exploited using algorithms based on statistics and probability. This explains both the successes and failures of this technology.
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.
Data visualization: bring your data to life
Today's connected world generates a continuous stream of raw data. For anyone seeking to explore and interpret it through graphical representations, data visualization is the visible tip of the Big Data iceberg. The goal? To convey a message and make decision-making easier...
Big news briefs: digital technology, Big Data and French
Everything you always wanted to know about Big Data but were afraid to ask.
Big Data: data, science's new El Dorado
People are talking about Big Data in industry, in university programs and online. Everywhere! But what does this term actually mean? It is a revolutionary technology that affects every major sector, from finance and transportation to science.
Trompe-l'oeil geometry: razzle dazzle camouflage
Hard though it may be to believe, geometry has sometimes helped to fight the enemy in wartime—or at least to limit the severity of its attacks.
The first America: Mathematical cartography in 1507
This little "green globe," dating from the early 16th century and measuring just fourteen centimeters in diameter, is the first to bear the name "America"—in four places, no less, as if to proclaim the discovery beyond doubt.
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...
A nest of theorems
Heron's formula is strikingly simple. All the more remarkably, it provides a highly effective way to prove other, equally elegant results. It even leads to more fascinating problems in geometry!
A high-flying formula
Most of us learned how to use a compass to construct a triangle from the lengths of its three sides. Those three numbers are enough to determine a triangle. But how can we find its area from those data alone? That is precisely what Heron's formula does.
Maths as an accessory: briefs and curiosities
The latest trendy creations for mathematical fashion lovers
Buffon and chance in geometry
In a 1733 paper, the Comte de Buffon introduced what is now known as "Buffon's needle problem." This experiment illustrates a field of mathematics that is flourishing today: stochastic geometry, with its many applications ranging from telecommunications to medical imaging.
Rational behavior under risk: probability
Faced with a lottery offering two different prizes, people adopt different strategies. Why do some participants prefer a potential prize that is not the largest? Their choices depend on how each person conceives of probability—whether as a one-off event or one that will be repeated.
Points and lines: let the maths festivities begin!
On a sheet of paper, you doodle a few points, join them with lines... and you're off! Trial and error, attempts, mistakes, partial successes, a conjecture... It's all there. Mathematics—graph theory in particular—joins the party.
Steganography, cryptography's inseparable companion
While cryptography seeks to make information unintelligible, steganography aims to conceal the very existence of that information. The idea is to hide it within a drawing, image, text or sound.