Articles

The economics of healthWhen is a medical treatment worth its cost?
Intriguing integrals: Part IWhat's the integral of xk? If you're up to speed with your calculus, you can probably rattle the answer off by heart. But can you prove it? Chris Sangwin introduces an ingenious method for deriving the integral from first principles.
Outer space: Cushioning the blowWhere's the sweet spot?
On a clear day: solution
Understanding uncertainty: Infinite monkey business

David Spiegelhalter explains that waiting for an infinite number of monkeys to produce the complete works of Shakespeare is not just a probabilistic certainty, it also gives us an insight into how long we can expect to wait for a rare event to happen.
Of pancakes, mice and menGenes normally evolve by tiny mutations, but every now and then something more radical occurs and entire genes along a chromosome get flipped. Understanding gene flipping boils down to solving a problem from pure maths. Colva Roney-Dougal and Vincent Vatter explain, taking us on a journey from waiters sorting pancakes, via one of the richest men in the world, to the genetic similarities of mice and humans.
On what day of the week were you born?Want to impress an audience? Then why not become a lightning calculator by learning Burkard Polster and Marty Ross' method for working out the day on which someone was born from their birthday really fast.
Intriguing integrals: Part IIComing to think of it, is the standard formula for the integral of xk really the best one? Chris Sangwin makes an interesting case that it is not.
Editorial

Stats, damn stats and genetics
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Influenza virus: it's all in the packaging!We have all become more aware of the dangers of influenza this year, but why is it so dangerous? Julia Gog explains that the unusual structure of the influenza genome can lead to dangerous evolutionary jumps, and how mathematics is helping to understand how the virus replicates.
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Uncoiling the spiral: Maths and hallucinationsThink drug-induced hallucinations, and the whirly, spirally, tunnel-vision-like patterns of psychedelic imagery immediately spring to mind. But it's not just hallucinogenic drugs that conjure up these geometric structures. People have reported seeing them in near-death experiences, following sensory deprivation, or even just after applying pressure to the eyeballs. So what can these patterns tell us about the structure of our brains?
Understanding uncertainty: Breast screening, a statistical controversy

One in nine women will get breast cancer in her lifetime, and it seems sensible to screen women for breast cancer to treat them as early as possible. But, as David Spiegelhalter explains, screening is a controversial issue.