Maths on the move!

Podcast Archive

Find all of our Podcasts from 2007 onwards

Plus advent calendar door #20: It's all maths!Could it be that the Universe is a mathematical structure? Find out more with Max Tegmark.
Plus Advent Calendar Door #19: Flying home with quantum physicsFind out why scientists trying to build quantum computers might do worse than talk to birds.
Plus advent calendar door #18: The Gauss Prize 2018If you have ever been in an MRI scanner you'll appreciate David Donoho's work, which has revolutionised this imaging technique.
Plus Advent Calendar Door #17: Protecting the nationThe furore around the MMR vaccine and autism has shown that vaccination can be an emotive issue. We talk to an expert about the math used to make sure it's safe.
Plus Advent Calendar Door #14: The Fields medals 2018We revisit this year's Fields medals, which were awarded in Rio de Janeiro in August.
Plus Advent Calendar Door #16: The puzzle of timeTime is a problem, not just for you and me, but also for philosophers. What exactly is time? Why does it have a direction? And was there a beginning of time? Find out more in this podcast.
Plus advent calendar door #15: Sexual statisticsHow many times do we think of it a day? How many times we do it? And with how many people? Find out about the stats of sex with David Spiegelhalter.
Plus Advent Calendar Door #13: Does infinity exist?We explore infinity, from shock waves to black holes, and from Aristotle's ideas to Cantor's never-ending tower of infinities.
Plus advent calendar door #12: How the velodrome found its formFind out how maths gave the Olympic cycling venue in London its elegant form.
Plus advent calendar door #11: The story of the GömböcIt looks like an egg, it wriggles, and it shouldn't really exist: introducing the Gömböc.
Plus advent calendar door #10: Small worlds on the brainWhat do the human brain, the Internet and climate change have in common? They're all hugely complex and can only be understood with maths.
Plus advent calendar door #9: Does quantum physics really describe reality?Does it? We talk to some big names in the field to find out.
Plus Advent Calendar Door #8: What happened before the big bang?The Universe is an infinitely self-perpetuating foam of bubbles.
Plus Advent Calendar Door #7: Was maths to blame for the financial crisis?Can we blame maths for our money troubles? Find out behind door number 7!
Plus Advent Calendar Door #6: Maths takes flightOpen door number 6 and step inside a mathematical space!
Plus Advent Calendar Door #5: Catching wavesThe Fourier transform is a piece of maths that is, almost single-handedly, responsible for the digital revolution. We asked Chris Budd what the Fourier transform does, and how it does it. This podcast accompanies the Plus article Saving lives: The mathematics of tomography.
Plus Advent Calendar Door #4: What is a black hole - physically?We asked cosmologist Pau Figueras everything we’ve ever wanted to know about black holes. In this podcast he explains what black holes are, physically, and how we hope to observe them.
Plus advent calendar door #3: How to evaluate a medical treatmentIt's the time of the year for cough sweets, flu medication and paracetamol. But how do we know these and other medicines really work?
Plus Advent Calendar Door #1: Stadium mathsFind out about what's involved in building a football stadium and why it requires listening to Belgian techno.
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Packing spheresWe talk to Maryna Viazovska, who in 2016 made a breakthrough in the theory of sphere packings.
Ivan Smith: The podcastIn this podcast we talk to Ivan Smith, invited lecturer at the ICM, about his work and what he likes about the ICM.
The ICM 2022: The podcastWe talk to two of the organisers of the ICM 2022, which will take place in St Petersburg.
Nalini Joshi: The podcastIn this podcast we talk to Nalini Joshi, incoming President of the International Mathematical Union, about the IMU and her work.
Clément Mouhout: the podcastClément Mouhot tells us about his work trying to understand some of the most beautiful structures in mathematics and physics.