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Gavin Harper is a mathematician working right at the heart of genetics

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March 2010
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snell's law

Tags: lens : refraction : group velocity : phase velocity : refractive index : negative refractive index : snell's law : wavelength : Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism


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It's International Year of Astronomy and all eyes are on Galileo Galilei, whose astronomical observations 400 years ago revolutionised our understanding of the Universe. But few people know that Galileo wasn't the first to build a telescope and turn it on the stars. That honour falls to a little-known mathematician called Thomas Harriot, who excelled in many other ways too. Anna Faherty takes us on a tour of his work.

Tags: refraction : astronomy : algebra : snell's law : Kepler's conjecture : binary number


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A new liquid breaks the laws of physics

Tags: refraction : snell's law : symmetry : chirality : reflection