A mathematical lie has been circulating on the Internet.
It concerns the background of Andrew Wiles's recent work on mathematics related to Fermat's last theorem, which involves the earlier work of a mathematician named Taniyama.
This lie states that at the time of a conjecture by Taniyama in 1955, there was no known relationship between the two areas of mathematics known as "elliptic curves" and "modular forms."
The lie, due to Harvard mathematician Barry Mazur, was broadcast in a TV program, "The Proof," in October 1997 and repeated in a book based on the program and in a Scientific American article, "Fermat's Last Stand," by Simon Singh and Kenneth Ribet, in November 1997.