Articles

strings
String theory: From Newton to Einstein and beyondOver the last few years the words string theory have nudged their way into public consciousness. It's a theory of everything in which everything's made of strings — or something like that. But why strings? What do they do? Where did the idea come from and why do we need such a theory? David Berman has an equation-free introduction for beginners.
Understanding uncertainty: A league table lottery

League tables are controversial and for good reason. Few things are simple enough to be measured by a single outcome like, for example, the number of exam passes or successful heart operations. But even if we do accept a single yardstick, we haven't yet reckoned with chance, which by itself can produce apparent patterns to delight any tabloid editor.
sun behind a cloud
An almighty coincidenceLife is full of coincidences, but how do you work out if something is really as unlikely as it seems? In this article Rob Eastaway and John Haigh find chance in church and work out the odds.
Outer space: EmergenceHow does complexity arise from simplicity?
Plus leaves the classroomFormer Plus editor Helen Joyce explains how Plus made it big as a part of our series to celebrate Plus's tenth anniversary.
Arithmetic, bones and countingJohn Napier was a clever man indeed. Besides inventing the logarithm, he developed ingenious calculating devices that fully exploit the power of the positional system. In this article Chris Sangwin tells you how to make your own set of Napier's bones and perform mathemagic with an interactive checker board.
Understanding uncertaintyWhat's the risk of passive smoking? Or climate change? How big is the terrorist threat? And should we trust league tables? These issues concern all of us, but it's not always easy to make sense of the barrage of media information. David Spiegelhalter, Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk, gives Plus his take on uncertainty.
Evolutionary mathsHow did we evolve our capacity for maths? Does maths piggy-back on our ability for language, or is it a completely separate faculty? Is it dependent on culture? Plus spoke to the cognitive psychologist Rosemary Varley to find some answers.
Frugal nature: Euler and the calculus of variationsPhil Wilson continues our series on the life and work of Leonhard Euler, who would have turned 300 this year. This article looks at the calculus of variations and a mysterious law of nature that has caused some scientists to reach out for god.
Editorial

Plus 1000 — Mathematical lives
Maths goes publicPlus celebrates its tenth birthday this year. Former editor and present executive editor of Plus, Robert Hunt, explores how maths popularisation in general, and Plus in particular, have changed over the last ten years.
Outer space: Pylon of the monthGeometry is power