Articles

Kissing the curve – manifolds in many dimensions

Following on from our previous article about curvature of lines and surfaces, we now move up to curvature of their higher dimensional equivalent – manifolds.

Life's quantum crystal ball

Does the ability to predict the future define the fundamental difference between living and inanimate matter?

Mindless searching

How stupid systems can use clever ways of finding things.

What is general relativity?

To celebrate the centenary of the general theory of relativity we asked physicist David Tong to explain the theory and the equation that expresses it. Watch the video or read the article!

El Niño: What on Earth will happen next?

El Niño is a climate event without equal, causing droughts, floods, hurricanes and typhoons around the globe. How can we understand and predict it?

What is a universe?

What do we know about our Universe? And could there be more than one?

Einstein and relativity: Part I

Read about the rocky road to one of Einstein's greatest achievements: the general theory of relativity, which celebrates its centenary this year.

Einstein and relativity: Part II

General relativity, Einstein's rise to international stardom, and his legacy.

The longitude problem

How longitude presented one of the greatest problems in history.

Latitude by the stars

Why the North Star tells you your latitude.

Finding your place in the world

What are global coordinates?

Maths in a minute: The Navier-Stokes equations

The mathematical problem with turbulence.