ם Nancy Drew and the Disappearing Mathematician

In the most mysterious piece of math news this year, an eccentric Russian mathematician who “looked like Rasputin, with long hair and fingernails,” showed up out of nowhere, solved the century-old Poincaré conjecture, and disappeared again, leaving behind a $1 million cash prize, a Fields Medal, and mathematical immortality.

If you feel like this is over your head, here’s the takeaway message from the article:

A sphere, a cigar, and a rabbit’s head are all the same.

(More on the Poincaré conjecture.)

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