On June 23, 1993, the mathematician Andrew Wiles gave the last of three lectures detailing his solution to Fermat’s last theorem, a problem that had remained unsolved for three and a half centuries.

In 1994, an earthquake of a proof shook up the mathematical world. The mathematician Andrew Wiles had finally settled Fermat’s Last Theorem, a central problem in number theory that had remained open ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. In 1994, an earthquake of a proof shook up the mathematical world. The mathematician Andrew Wiles had finally settled Fermat’s Last ...

A mathematician will turn a groundbreaking 100-page proof into computer code. The proof tool, Lean, lets users turn proofs written in prose into rules and logic for testing. Kevin Buzzard already uses ...

Andrew Wiles stumbled across the world's greatest mathematical puzzle, Fermat's Theorem, as a ten-year-old schoolboy, beginning a 30-year quest with just one goal in mind: to solve the problem that ...

The mathematicians who toiled on the famous enigma also devised powerful forms of end-to-end encryption. By William J. Broad Defenses against digital snoopers keep getting stronger. Encryption is what ...

The following is an extract from our Lost in Space-Time newsletter. Each month, we hand over the keyboard to a physicist or mathematician to tell you about fascinating ideas from their corner of the ...

THE first attempt to prove Fermat's last theorem contained in this edition repeats a fallacy to which attention has already been directed in NATURE, Oct. 30, 1919. On pp. 18, 21, “quantities”t and υ ...

James M. Vaughn Jr., wielding a fortune, argues that he brought about the Fermat breakthrough after the best and brightest had failed for centuries to solve the puzzle. James M. Vaughn Jr., president ...

THE “last theorem of Fermat” states that if x, y, z, p denote positive integers, the equation X p + Y p =Z p is impossible if p exceeds 2: thus ho cube can be the sum of two cubes, and so on. If the ...