Sentence:  This is an unsolved problem which probably has never been seriously investigated , although one frequently hears the comment that we have insufficient specialists of the kind who can compete with the Germans or Swiss , for example , in precision machinery and <WSD>mathematics</WSD> , or the Finns in geochemistry . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  a science (or group of related sciences) dealing with the logic of quantity and shape and arrangement