The Death of Proof

The work

AuthorsJohn Horgan
Editors
Typearticle
Year1993
Citekeyhorgan1993death

Where it appeared

Published inScientific American
PublisherSpringer Nature
Volume269
Issue4
Pages92--103

Identifiers

DOI10.1038/scientificamerican1093-92
OpenAlexW2092023354
ISSN0036-8733

Settled

AbstractScientific American printed no abstract for this piece, and no registrar holds one -- Crossref, OpenAlex, DataCite (404) and Unpaywall were all asked on 2026-09-03 and only the issn came back. The copy carries a standfirst rather than an abstract: 'Computers are transforming the way mathematicians discover, prove and communicate ideas, but is there a place for absolute certainty in this brave new world?' That is the magazine's own framing of the piece, not a statement offered as an abstract, and the corpus distinguishes the two -- so it is quoted here rather than harvested into the field.
IsbnA magazine article has no isbn. The record carries Scientific American's issn, which enrich supplied, and locates the article by volume, issue and pages 92--103.
SchoolA magazine article has no school; that field belongs to a thesis.

A copy is held

pdf, 599.8 kB. Not published — it may be under copyright. The facts and links here are.

How it got here

How it got hereagent via openalex
Added2026-09-03 15:10 UTC
Approved bya person 2026-09-03 17:29 UTC

Cite it as

@article{horgan1993death,
  title        = {The Death of Proof},
  author       = {John Horgan},
  year         = {1993},
  journal      = {Scientific American},
  publisher    = {Springer Nature},
  volume       = {269},
  number       = {4},
  pages        = {92--103},
  issn         = {0036-8733},
  doi          = {10.1038/scientificamerican1093-92},
}

This record lives at https://refs.drheap.org/horgan1993death/ and will keep doing so.