Articles

Maths in a minute: Fourier series How the heat equation inspired the maths that powers the entertainment industry.
Bach and the musical Möbius stripDiscover (and listen to) the Möbius strip that's hidden within one of Bach's famous canons.
The shape of things to come: part iThis year's Nobel Prize for Physics brings together the physics of materials with one of our favourite areas of maths – topology.
Watching the cosmosWhen it comes to the entire cosmos, we humans are incredibly small and insignificant. But that's precisely why we need to take ourselves into account when thinking about the Universe. Find out why.
Watch and learnA brief introduction to the strange theory of quantum mechanics and how it appears to afford a special role to observers.
Maths in a minute: Maths and navigationHow the need to locate your location at sea led to some interesting mathematics.
Taming big dataA new institute on the maths of information has just been launched at the Faculty of Mathematics in Cambridge.
Maths in a minute: The square root of 2 is irrationalHere's one of the most elegant proofs in all of maths. Rejoice in its simplicity!
Maths in a minute: Maths and communicationA quick look at the role of mathematics in communication — from making and breaking codes to making sure messages arrive intact.
The happy ending problem So easy to describe, yet so hard to prove.
The mathematics of kindnessIf only the fittest survive, how can we explain the evolution of altruism? Mathematics has some answers.
Maths in a minute: False positivesWhy a positive test result doesn't necessarily mean you have the disease.