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Published online 26 March 2004 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news040322-16

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Maths 'Nobel' awarded

Pair get prize for formula that counts solutions to problems.

The Abel Prize, often described as a Nobel Prize for maths, has been awarded to two mathematicians for unifying swathes of mathematical theories that were once thought to be unrelated.

Sir Michael Atiyah and Isadore Singer worked together to create something called index theory, which helps to bring together branches of maths from topology to geometry.

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