My sympathies to any Arsenal hate-watchers this evening.
Timothy Gowers
@wtgowers.bsky.social
Mathematics professor at Collège de France and fellow of Trinity College Cambridge.
I've now watched both Arsenal in the Champions League final and England in the World Cup semifinal go 1-0 up and from that moment give up all thoughts of playing out from the back. Why do teams do this, when hoofing the ball up the field just seems to invite pressure?
OpenAI's claim that this is a central conjecture in discrete geometry is not an exaggeration. This will I think be looked back on as the first time that AI solved a major mathematics problem (defined as a problem that all experts in some subfield had thought about). openai.com/index/model-...
An OpenAI model has disproved a central conjecture in discrete geometry
An OpenAI model solved the 80-year-old unit distance problem, disproving a major conjecture in discrete geometry and marking a milestone in AI-driven mathematics.
openai.com
Trump and Elon Musk destroyed most of the global H.I.V. program that saved hundreds of thousands of lives in Zambia. Now the US is threatening to cut remaining support, unless Zambia gives access to the country’s mineral resources. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/25/h...
AIDS Creeps Back in Parts of Zambia, a Year After U.S. Cuts to H.I.V. Assistance
nytimes.com
I've created a couple of mathematical games, both based on word problems in groups or semigroups. One of them could lead to a Polymath project if enough people are interested in it, as it is connected with an open problem. More details in the linked blog post.
Group and semigroup puzzles and a possible Polymath project
An Artin-Tits group is a group with a finite set of generators $latex a_1,\dots a_k$ in which every relation is of the form $latex (ab)^r=(ba)^r$ or $latex (ab)^ra=(ba)^rb$ for some positive intege…
gowers.wordpress.com
It was a pleasure to be interviewed by Madeleine Tao for pi day (even if the photo below might suggest otherwise). www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv9O...
Happy π Day from Tim Gowers: Mathematics, AI, and the Future of Collaboration
YouTube video by SAIR
youtube.com
I get two or three emails a day from people wanting me to comment on their new mathematical theories, but today marked a first: the email began with the words "Dear Terence Tao". (To be clear, I wasn't being cc-ed in to a message to Terence Tao.)
Something tells me my prime minister would find this sign less amusing than I do.
The two closest people to me in this map turned out to be @teorth.bsky.social and @gregegansf.bsky.social -- I couldn't be happier.
Theo Sanderson@theo.io · 6mo agoI made a map of 3.4 million Bluesky users - see if you can find yourself! bluesky-map.theo.io I've seen some similar projects, but IMO this seems to better capture some of the fine-grained detail
A complaint I have about intelligent extraterrestrial life in almost all science fiction is that the beings are boringly humanoid. I was recently given Diaspora by @gregegansf.bsky.social, an author I've been meaning to read for a long time. It turned out to be a glorious exception to this rule.
Some seem surprised that one can hold the following three beliefs simultaneously. 1. The October 7th attacks were appalling. 2. Israel's response has been appalling. 3. The Iranian regime is appalling and it would be great if it were overthrown (assuming something worse didn't replace it).
It may not be the worst aspect of the US invasion of Venezuela, but the fact that Trump cites Venezuela's failure to pump enough oil out of the ground as one of his reasons for invading is nevertheless deeply depressing.
This, but adding 1. My main non-plane trips in 2025 were one train journey to Venice, one to Leiden, and one to Saint Jean de Luz in the south west corner of France. All three went smoothly -- as last year my main gripe is that it is quite a bit more expensive to go by train than to fly.
Timothy Gowers@wtgowers.bsky.social · 2y agoNow that it's 2025, I can celebrate having got through 2024 without flying. To do this I had to turn down a number of interesting invitations, and I also made three trips by train (two to the south of France and one to Berlin) that would have been cheaper and quicker to do by plane.
Four degrees of separation: "Countries meeting in Brazil for two weeks could manage only a voluntary agreement to begin discussions on a roadmap to an eventual phase-out of fossil fuels ..." www.theguardian.com/environment/...
End of fossil fuel era inches closer as Cop30 deal agreed after bitter standoff
Wealthy countries should triple funds for countries to tackle climate impacts, but deforestation and critical minerals blocked from final deal
theguardian.com
This comment has a strong guns-don't-kill-people vibe.
POLITICO Europe@politico.eu · 9mo agoEuropean Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said today that the fight against climate change was not against the fuels that cause it — only the pollution they emit.
Around ten years ago Marijn Heule, Oliver Kullmann and Victor Marek proved that if you 2-colour the positive integers from 1 to 7825, then you must be able to find x, y and z all of the same colour with x^2+y^2=z^2 -- that is, a monochromatic Pythagorean triple. 1/
I crossed an interesting threshold yesterday, which I think many other mathematicians have been crossing recently as well. In the middle of trying to prove a result, I identified a statement that looked true and that would, if true, be useful to me. 1/3
Quel sera l’impact de l’IA sur les mathématiques dans les prochaines années ? par @wtgowers.bsky.social @college-de-france.fr www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcTW...
Quel sera l’impact de l’IA sur les mathématiques dans les prochaines années ? - Timothy Gowers
YouTube video by Collège de France
youtube.com
I can just about cope with the idea that the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has hit a new record -- it's what one would expect even if we were rapidly decarbonizing. But that the *rate of increase* has hit a new record is unbelievably depressing. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Record leap in CO2 fuels fears of accelerating global heating
CO2 in air hit new high last year, with scientists concerned natural land and ocean carbon sinks are weakening
theguardian.com
Gatwick expansion blows another huge hole in the UK Government's already perforated climate commitments. New article on Gatwick expansion with my @tyndallcentre.bsky.social colleague Dr Lois Pennington @loispennington.bsky.social climateuncensored.com/gatwick-expa...
Gatwick Expansion: A Direct Assault on Climate Commitments - Climate Uncensored
Comment on UK Government announcement of Gatwick Airport expansion by Professor Kevin Anderson and Dr. Lois Pennington, of Tyndall Centre, University of
climateuncensored.com
Many thanks to the sender of an email that includes the heartwarming sentence, "I have long admired your contributions to mathematics, particularly [insert their field or specific result you respect]."
Happy to be able to say that my automatic theorem proving group in Cambridge submitted a successful bid to the AI for Math Fund, launched this year by Renaissance Philanthropy and XTX Markets. Here is the fund website, which contains descriptions of all the 29 projects to be funded.
AI for Math Fund — Renaissance Philanthropy – A brighter future for all through science, technology, and innovation
renaissancephilanthropy.org
The UK's terrorism problem has just got a whole lot worse.
Protester arrested over ‘Plasticine Action’ T-shirt: ‘How ridiculous is this?’
Miles Pickering says crowd at protest over Palestine Action ban was laughing at ‘silliness’ of scene as he was detained
theguardian.com
Around a year ago my mother, my two sisters and I attended an event of a kind we would never normally go to: a celebration for fans of a TV series, who came from all over the world. The series in question was Granada TV's version of Sherlock Holmes, starring Jeremy Brett. 1/2
This article points out that of the three people in the infamous photo of Prince Andrew, Virginia Giuffre, and Ghislaine Maxwell, Andrew is the only one who isn't either dead or in prison. In other news, I am the only one out of me, Keir Starmer and Bukayo Saka who isn't either a PM or a footballer.
Will Yeates@wyeates.bsky.social · 12mo agoThe idea of an unelected, tax avoiding, taxpayer sponging monarchy in a democracy in 2025 is ridiculous. #notmyking #abolishthemonarchy #nokings
I have now added a third video to this IMO2025 series, in which I solve Question 5 (in about an hour and a half).
IMO2025Q5
YouTube video by Timothy Gowers
youtube.com
Timothy Gowers@wtgowers.bsky.social · last yr.From time to time I like to video myself solving maths problems in real time. Since the IMO has just happened, I plan to try a few of this year's questions. Here I get through Question 1. More to come at some point. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G1n...
I have added a second video to this IMO2025 series, in which I solve Question 4. (I decided to skip Q2 as it was geometry and Q3 for now as it would normally be harder than Q4 and I want to work up.) It's pretty long -- an hour and 46 minutes -- but you can always watch at double speed.
IMO2025Q4
YouTube video by Timothy Gowers
youtube.com
Timothy Gowers@wtgowers.bsky.social · last yr.From time to time I like to video myself solving maths problems in real time. Since the IMO has just happened, I plan to try a few of this year's questions. Here I get through Question 1. More to come at some point. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G1n...
From time to time I like to video myself solving maths problems in real time. Since the IMO has just happened, I plan to try a few of this year's questions. Here I get through Question 1. More to come at some point. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G1n...
IMO2025Q1
YouTube video by Timothy Gowers
youtube.com