Several vertebrate species can distinguish between, say, two and five bananas—but with the exception of primates, they can’t grasp the numerical rules that would let them arrange their piles of fruit ...

It generally takes until preschool age for children to understand that a word like “four” represents a set, but new research from Johns Hopkins University suggests infants understand the concept of ...

The following is an excerpt from Thinking in Numbers: On Life, Love, Meaning, and Math, by Daniel Tammet, out now from Little, Brown. Ask an Icelander what comes after three and he will answer, “Three ...