What Is the "What's new" Blog by Terence Tao?

"What's new" is the personal mathematics blog of Terence Tao, hosted on WordPress at terrytao.wordpress.com. Its stated purpose is to publish "updates on my research and expository papers, discussion of open problems, and other maths-related topics." It is a working mathematician's blog rather than a news site or a course platform: posts mix original research announcements, expository writing, lecture notes, and commentary on the profession. If you want to follow one mathematician's ongoing output and thinking in real time, this is the site; if you need a structured textbook or a moderated Q&A forum, it is not.

What the blog actually publishes

The site's own description and visible post list show several recurring content types:

• Research and expository papers — announcements and explanations of Tao's own work, sometimes with links to preprints.
• Open problems — discussion of unsolved questions and partial progress.
• Course notes — numbered lecture notes, for example "247A, Notes 2: The Hardy–Littlewood maximal function and applications," which indicates graduate-level course material posted as it is taught.
• Guest posts — contributions from other mathematicians, clearly labeled as such.
• Commentary on the field — opinion and analysis about how mathematics is practiced, including the impact of new tools.

The visible headings on the page give a concrete sense of the range: a guest post on classical solutions and singularity formation in incompressible fluids (tagged with the Euler and Navier–Stokes equations), a guest post asking what powerful AI models mean for mathematicians, a post titled "AIM: an invitation to explore mathematics together," the 247A course notes, and a post about arXiv's rate limiting policy.

Who writes it

The blog is written by Terence Tao, with occasional guest posts by other mathematicians. Guest contributions are attributed to their authors, and Tao notes when a post was written in another format and converted with AI assistance — a detail worth knowing if you care about provenance. Comments are open on at least some posts; the AI-opinion guest post shows 13 comments, so reader discussion is part of the site.

How to read it

• Start with the feed. The site offers a feed subscription, so you can follow new posts without checking the page manually.
• Use the navigation for orientation. The site lists static pages including Home, About, Career advice, On writing, Books, Mastodon+, and Applets. "Career advice" and "On writing" are the pages to check if your interest is advice rather than mathematics.
• Expect mathematical prerequisites. The research and course-note posts assume a mathematics background; the opinion and career posts are more broadly accessible.
• Treat tags as your filter. Posts carry subject tags (for example, math.AP for analysis of PDEs, math.GM for general mathematics), which is the practical way to find everything on a topic.

What it is not

The site is a personal blog, not a peer-reviewed journal, so research posts are announcements and explanations rather than citable publications in themselves — follow the links to the actual papers. It is also not a systematic textbook: the course notes follow a particular course, not a curriculum. And the presence of a subscription option does not by itself tell you anything about pricing or access terms; the page evidence does not specify those, so check the site directly if that matters to you.

Who should follow it

Follow "What's new" if you are a mathematician or student who wants timely exposure to active research areas, expository treatments of hard material, and informed commentary on the state of the field. Skip it if you need self-contained introductory material, structured exercises with solutions, or a general-audience science feed — the posts are written for readers who already have mathematical training.