The 2003 Dirac Lecturer, distinguished physicist Freeman Dyson, tells Plus why he is an optimist, what makes life interesting and why old-fashioned maths is what you need for physics.

In the first of a new series 'Imaging Maths', Plus takes an illustrated tour of an extraordinary geometric construction: the Klein bottle.

The number chosen by the England captain for his Real Madrid shirt is rich in mysterious connotations. But mathematician Marcus du Sautoy backs a new theory to explain why Beckham has plumped for number 23.

Human beings are famously prone to error, and proof-readers are, after all, only human. But who picks up the errors a proof-reader misses? John D. Barrow challenges readers to estimate the errors that aren't found from the errors that are.

All of science can be regarded as motivated by the search for rules behind the randomness of nature, and attempts to make prediction in the presence of uncertainty. Chris Budd describes the search for pattern and order in chaos.

Harold Shipman could have been detected earlier by monitoring the death rates of his patients.

Mathematics shows that open source software beats closed source software in the race to fix bugs.

The Institute of Physics and Rambert Dance Company are planning to celebrate the theories of Einstein through dance.

The geometry says that now is the right time for a mission to Mars.