Coming soon:
Huge Numbers

Basic Books, April 2026

“Humanity has always been entranced by big numbers — the bigger the better. This fascinating exploration of the giants of the mathematical world is clear, informative, and immensely readable. Wonderful!”

– Ian Stewart

“A charming tour through the realm of the very, very, very numerous, from the ancient world through the distant future.” 

– Jordan Ellenberg

“Elwes provides a phenomenal scenic tour of googology (the study of huge numbers), covering everything from ancient Mayan and Babylonian numeral systems to the scale of the universe to the dizzyingly fast-growing functions of mathematical logic. I wish I had written this book.”

– Scott Aaronson

Dr Richard Elwes is a writer and Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of Leeds in the UK.

YouTube playlist of Richard on Numberphile.

Blog Archive

  • “Education Without Permission”

    Last week should have been the summer school in Sirince, Turkey, on the subject of Algebra and Model Theory. This school is an annual event, and is financially supported by TUBITAK, the highest research…

  • I danced with a man, who co-authored a paper with a girl, who appeared in a film with The Prince Of Wales

    My Erdös-Bacon number seems to be 6. At any rate my Erdös-number is (at most) 4, and my Bacon-number comes out at a dubious 2: When I was young I did some voice-over work…

  • From e to eternity

    I have an article in the New Scientist magazine – in the shops now. (Unless this post is more than a week old, in which case it be accessed here; or in the July…

  • Paul Cohen 2: The Continuum Hypothesis

    [This is a sequel to my post on the Axiom of Choice]   In the late 19th century, Georg Cantor’s work in set theory opened up an exciting world: that of infinite numbers.

  • Paul Cohen 1: The Axiom Of Choice

    Paul Cohen has sadly died. The only logician ever to win the Fields Medal, he will primarily be remembered for his work in Set Theory, and in particular for proving two major independence results:…

  • Beginning With A Bang

    Greetings, and welcome to my blog! I’m afraid there’s nothing much here at the moment, so you might want to come back in a few weeks once I’ve got round to writing something. My main…