Visual mathematics

đź“– Distill is back ;)

The Distill journal was founded as an adapter between traditional and online scientific publishing. We believed that many valuable scientific contributions — such as explanations, interactive articles, and visualizations — were held back by not being seen as “real scientific publications.” Our theory was that if a journal were to publish such artifacts, it would allow authors to benefit from the traditional academic incentive system and enable more of this kind of work.

Gaussian Processes and Bayesian Optimization: An Interactive Tour

  • Authors: Joseph Morlier
  • Published: August 2026

Summary: This article builds that idea from scratch and ends where a lot of real design optimization currently lives: Bayesian Optimization — using a Gaussian Process not just to predict, but to decide where to sample next under a tight budget. Every figure below is generated by the same code as the source notebooks (linked throughout), and the two boxed panels are fully interactive — drag points, change kernels, click to sample a “black box,” and watch the algorithm choose its next move.