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All tied up

What do tying your shoe laces and Santa's Christmas Eve journey have in common?
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X-otic X-ray visions

Using their X-ray vision, astronomers have for the first time found two black holes in the same galaxy, and taken a peek inside a neutron star.
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Stolen science

A rare first edition of Newton's mathematical masterpiece has been stolen! And is Newton the Greatest Briton?
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Numbers going into a pipe and coming out of a red suitcase

More or Less

A new series of More or Less, BBC Radio 4's series devoted to all things numerical, starts on November 12th. Presenter Andrew Dilnot tells Plus about the motivation behind the programme.

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The golden ratio and aesthetics

It was Euclid who first defined the Golden Ratio, and ever since people have been fascinated by its extraordinary properties. Find out if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and how the Golden Ratio crosses from mathematics to the arts.
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Green and pink photo of pills

The best medicine?

To make hard decisions, you need hard facts. Medical statistics can help us to decide what treatment to look for when we are ill, and to estimate our chances of recovery.

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white silhouette standing on atom

In a spin

When it comes to the science of the very small, strange things start happening, and our intuition ceases to be a useful guide. Plus finds out about the crazy quantum world, and spin that a politician would die for.

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Mathematical mysteries: The gentlemen from Basle and the Petersburg Paradox

Just over 220 years have passed since the death of one of the most distinguished mathematicians in history: Daniel Bernoulli, who died on March 17th, 1782. The name of Bernoulli asks for precision since the family from Basle produced no fewer than eight outstanding mathematicians within three generations.