Articles

Life as we don't know it
Physicist and cosmologist Paul Davies has made an unusual move into the infant discipline of astrobiology. He tells Plus about his interest in the big questions: what is life, how would we recognise aliens - and are they all around us?
Editorial

Stirring the electoral soup

Outer space: The rule of two

Infinities are tricky things and have perplexed mathematicians and philosophers for thousands of years.

Chaos in the brain
Saying that someone is a chaotic thinker might seem like an insult - but, according to Lewis Dartnell, it could be that the mathematical phenomenon of chaos is a crucial part of what makes our brains work.
Cracking codes, part II
In the second of two articles, Artur Ekert visits the strange subatomic world and investigates the possibility of unbreakable quantum cryptography.
Genius, stupidity and genius again
Tope Omitola looks back at the tragically short but inspiringly productive life of a true original: Evariste Galois.
The magical mathematics of music
According to Shakespeare, music is the food of love. But Jeffrey Rosenthal follows Galileo's observation that the entire universe is written in the language of mathematics - and that includes music.
Brave young worlds
Extrasolar planets have been grabbing the headlines
Editorial, Maths education
  • Wisdom from above - An intriguing debate in the House of Lords on standards in maths education
  • Readers' corner - How many computers does the world need?
Cracking codes
In the first of two articles, Artur Ekert takes a tour through the history of codes and the prospects for truly unbreakable quantum cryptography.