The paper, published recently in PLOS One, describes an investigation of 112 ostrich eggshell fragments dating back more than 60,000 years from three archaeological sites in southern Africa. These ...

“The results demonstrate that Homo sapiens during the late [Middle Stone Age] mastered precise, pre-planned patterns anchored in specific geometric affordances: orthogonality [meaning the use of right ...

Archaeologists report that 60,000-year-old ostrich eggshell engravings reveal humanity’s earliest known use of geometry.

Circles, triangles and squares. One of the first things we learn as children are basic geometric shapes. And they stay with us throughout our lives. Maybe it’s that sense of familiarity that makes ...

Tessellations aren’t just eye-catching patterns—they can be used to crack complex mathematical problems. By repeatedly reflecting shapes to tile a surface, researchers uncovered a method that links ...

BOTHELL — One person’s idle doodling is another’s mathematical breakthrough. Two mathematics professors and one of their former students at the University of Washington at Bothell have made a ...

Early in the morning during festivals, many Indian homes wake up to patterns forming quietly at the doorstep. White powder ...

A mathematician has developed a new way to uncover simple patterns that might underlie apparently complex systems, such as clouds, cracks in materials or the movement of the stockmarket. The method, ...

Scientists mapping the human body at the cellular level keep running into the same surprise: beneath the apparent chaos of tissues and organs, there is a hidden order that looks a lot like pure ...

Math scholar and alumna Carolyn Yackel uses fiber arts to explore some of the most fundamental patterns in geometry ...