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I'm an undergraduate math and physics major aiming to pursue a Ph.D. in either pure math or theoretical physics. I don't read traditional newspaper or news websites, since in my opinion they are bloated with bullshit (excuse me). However, this way I also occasionally miss important breakthroughs in math and physics. For instance, last year, I didn't know about the progress in ABC conjecture before I saw a lecture poster in the departmental elevator. I hardly heard about the discovery of Higgs boson before a CERN representative came to deliver a lecture (early this year—what a shame).

So, I want to know if there is a math (or theoretical/mathematical physics) news website or publication tailored for mathematicians (or theoretical/mathematical physicists). I searched on the web but all I found were some anecdotal applied math news for the general public.

I'm sorry if this question doesn't fit nicely here. Also I couldn't find an appropriate tag.

By the way, if you are practicing mathematician and never heard of such a thing, please also leave a comment. Thanks.

4ae1e1
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  • I recently discovered this https://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/, which seems to be along the lines of what you're looking for, but haven't really been reading it much so I'm not sure how good it is. Also, if you're not keen on traditional news sites, what about Wikipedia's current events portal? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events – Josh Nov 14 '13 at 00:20
  • @KevinSayHi : the discovery of the Higgs boson was announced with great fanfare all over the mainstream news media. Not so the ABC conjecture (which I have never heard of until just now). – Stefan Smith Nov 14 '13 at 00:27
  • @JoshChen Hi Josh, thanks for the link. But isn't that kind of like Nature News? Mostly natural sciences or applied math, very little (if any) pure math? Anyway, now as I think twice, there are few breaking news in math or theoretical physics every year. Maybe the question is pointless in the first place. – 4ae1e1 Nov 14 '13 at 00:27
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    @KevinSayHi : the major mathematical professional organizations (MAA, AMS, SIAM) have monthly journals. The AMS Notices is most oriented toward pure math research. If any extremely important breakthroughs occurred they would probably appear in the Notices. It may require full membership, which is fairly expensive if you have to pay for it yourself. I don't know much about Websites. Have you tried cruising MathOverflow? – Stefan Smith Nov 14 '13 at 00:31
  • @StefanSmith Look, I don't read mainstream news... And I think I might have heard outsiders talking about the Higgs boson last year, but I didn't take it seriously, since media tends to exaggerate and distort scientific things (as most journalists are morons in our fields). And you're right, ABC conjecture isn't widely publicized. Nevertheless I think it's a pretty important event in 2012 (if the proof is correct). – 4ae1e1 Nov 14 '13 at 00:33
  • Don't forget arxiv for some articles as well... – abiessu Nov 14 '13 at 00:35
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    @StefanSmith Oh, thank you for AMS Notices. Of course my institution already paid for the subscription. And MathOverflow... I don't think I will spend three hours per day hunting for important discoveries... I'm still an undergrad anyway. – 4ae1e1 Nov 14 '13 at 00:35
  • @abiessu Thanks, but I think ArXiv is good for practicing mathematicians working in specific fields rather than undergrads wanting to know more about current math research. Filtered results targeting the general math community are more suitable for my level, you know. – 4ae1e1 Nov 14 '13 at 00:39

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The aperiodical (http://aperiodical.com/) is basically a maths news site. They mention most major mathematical news stories (recent big stories are the abc conjecture, the odd Goldbach conjecture and the ongoing prime gaps work). The website also has a lot of fun mathsy articles which are worth checking out in addition to news. I hope this is the sort of site you were looking for.

David Cushing
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  • David, thanks for the suggestion. I toured around the site a little bit; there's certainly a whole lot of stuff! The news article are written in a lighthearted fashion like blog posts, not much math involved, topics ranging from amateurish to professional (even to commercial stuff...); overall I think they hit important ongoing research, and provide nice links. It would be great if accompanied with serious publications like AMS Notices, Bulletin, etc. – 4ae1e1 Nov 22 '13 at 22:52