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five candles

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.

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Intriguing integrals: Part II

Coming 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.
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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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pattern

Uncoiling the spiral: Maths and hallucinations

Think 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?
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damaged building

Modelling catastrophes

Hardly six months go by without a natural disaster striking some part of the globe. While it's next to impossible to predict these catastrophes, let alone prevent them, mathematical modelling gives a way to prepare for their impact. Shane Latchman explains.
Article

How long is a day?

The obvious answer is 24 hours, but, as Nicholas Mee discovers, that would be far too simple. In fact, the length of a day varies throughout the year. If you plot the position of the Sun in the sky at the same time every day, you get a strange figure of eight which has provided one artist with a source for inspiration.
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Editorial

Seven things everyone wants to know about the Universe

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The power of origami

We've all heard of origami. It's all about making paper birds and pretty boxes, and is really just a game invented by Japanese kids, right? Prepare to be surprised as Liz Newton takes you on a journey of origami, maths and science.
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Ringing the changes

Did you know that church bell ringers have to memorise sequences of several thousand numbers, and that it can take up to 18 hours to translate these sequences into perfect bell ringing? Burkard Polster and Marty Ross explain why, and explore the maths behind bell ringing.