Many if not most of the articles in Science News involve some math, whether as an essential tool in conducting research or a way to solve real-world problems, such as how to calculate a safer crowd size during the pandemic, detect gerrymandering in voter districts or cook the perfect steak.

But sometimes we dig into pure mathematics — math that doesn’t address an immediate practical need but is worthy of pursuit for its own sake. That includes last year’s discovery of an “einstein” tile, a long-sought two-dimensional shape that can cover an infinite surface but only with a pattern that never repeats (SN: 4/22/23, p.