These are busy times for Plus. Apart from celebrating our 50th issue by putting together a bumper collection of in-depth articles, news and reviews, we're also working on various special projects, some of which have already gone live, and some of which will reach you over the next few weeks and months. Here's a sneak preview of what's in store for 2009...

New insights into gene permutations

Web users to write "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxies"

How will the UK do in the 2012 Olympics?

The world celebrates a great anniversary and Plus joins the party

The European Science Foundation backs systems biology

Innumeracy costs UK taxpayers up to £2.4 billion a year.

The UK Statistics Authority fulfills its duty to keep the government honest

Help secure the future of Plus

When it comes to describing natural phenomena, mathematics is amazingly — even unreasonably — effective. In this article Mario Livio looks at an example of strings and knots, taking us from the mysteries of physical matter to the most esoteric outpost of pure mathematics, and back again.

If you like mathematics because things are either true or false, then you'll be worried to hear that in some quarters this basic concept is hotly disputed. In this article Phil Wilson looks at constructivist mathematics, which holds that some things are neither true, nor false, nor anything in between.