Oooh! It's only 222 days until the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games! Eagerly clutching our virtual tickets to the women's handball quarter finals, we've been going around gathering some Olympic material for you. Here's what we found.

How the velodrome found its form

The Velodrome, with its striking curved shape, was the first venue to be completed in the London Olympic Park. Plus talked to structural engineers Andrew Weir and Pete Winslow from Expedition Engineering, who were part of the design team for the Velodrome, about how mathematics helped create its iconic shape.

Leaning into 2012

Rising like a giant pringle from the Olympic Park construction site, the Velodrome is the first of the 2012 London Olympic venues to be completed. With its sweeping curved roof and beautiful cedar clad exterior the Velodrome is a stunning building. But what most of the athletes are excited about is the elegant wooden cycle track enclosed inside, the medals that will be won, and the records that might be broken, in the summer of 2012.

No limits for Usain

Usain Bolt, the "fastest man on the planet", aims to get his 100 metre world record of 9.58 seconds down to 9.40 seconds. What has mathematics got to say about this quest?

The maths of gold medals: Four Olympic thoughts

It's not the winning, it's the taking part that counts. At least, that's what the Olympic creed would have us believe. But, like it or not, what the media and governments focus on is the tally of gold medals. This article explores some of the maths of gold.

Making gold for 2012

This year leading researchers in sports technology met at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London to demonstrate just how far their field has come over recent years. The changes they make to athletes' equipment and clothes may only make a tiny difference to their performance, but once they're added up they can mean the difference between gold and silver.

To see all our articles on the Olympic Games, including the last ones in Beijing, click here.

Back to the Plus Advent Calendar

2012 is Turing year, celebrating 100 years since the great mathematician and code breaker's birth. From your local pub quiz to Melvyn Bragg, everyone will be talking about Turing, so make sure you can shine with these Plus favourites.

Alan Turing: ahead of his time

Alan Turing is the father of computer science and contributed significantly to the WW2 effort, but his life came to a tragic end. This article explores his story.

What computers can't do

Another look at Turing's life and work. Find out what types of numbers we can't count and why there are limits on what can be achieved with Turing machines.

How the leopard got its spots

How does the uniform ball of cells that make up an embryo differentiate to create the dramatic patterns of a zebra or leopard? How come there are spotty animals with stripy tails, but no stripy animals with spotty tails? The answer comes from an ingenious mathematical model developed by Alan Turing.

Omega and why maths has no TOEs

Is there a Theory of Everything for mathematics? Gregory Chaitin thinks there isn't and Turing's famous halting problem plays an important part in his work.

Exploring the Enigma

Turing is most famous for his work as a WWII code breaker. This article looks at the efforts of all the code breakers at Bletchley Park, which historians believe shortened the war by two years.

Back to the Plus Advent Calendar

Here's a chance to meet the Plus team and some fascinating maths at the same time!

Our cities are filled with buildings, roads, cars, buses, trains, bikes, parks and gardens. They are crisscrossed with power, water, sewage and transport systems. They are built by engineers, architects, planners, technologists, doctors, designers and artists. Our cities are shaped by our environment, our society and our culture. And each and every part is built on mathematics.

Join Rachel Thomas, co-editor of Plus, in a public lecture exploring the maths in our cities. Rachel is also the Public Engagement Officer for Maths in the City. She is working with Marcus du Sautoy and Marcus' Marvellous Mathemagicians (M3), a group of volunteer maths students, to create walking tours of Oxford and London that will highlight the maths hiding in our urban environments.

The lecture will take place on the 31st of January between 5:30pm and 6:30pm at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences (CMS), Clarkson Road, Cambridge, UK. Admission to the lecture is free but pre-booking is essential — see here for more information.

Plus has been working with lots of fascinating, funny and famous mathematicians over the years. And since we've started producing podcasts in 2007, we can bring their voices directly to your ears. From Roger Penrose and Paul Davies to the science writer Simon Singh and the engineers behind the London 2012 velodrome, find out what they have to say.

Listen to the Plus podcasts!

Back to the Plus Advent Calendar