Articles

The Gömböc: The object that shouldn't existA Gömböc is a strange thing. It wriggles and rolls around with an apparent will of its own. Until quite recently, no-one knew whether Gömböcs even existed. Even now, Gábor Domokos, one of their discoverers, reckons that in some sense they barely exists at all.
Mysterious neutrinosResearch into the bizarre world of neutrinos helps to piece together the creation story of the Universe.
Sending flu packaging

How are researchers in disease dynamics using mathematics to understand how the influenza virus replicates? This short, accessible article investigates.
icon
El duende flamenco de Paco de LucíaThe funeral of the great flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucía this week reminded us of the mathematical and musical reasons we love flamenco.
Why are we here?David Sloan calculates how likely it is that our Universe exists. He explains to us how, and why the answer can help shape our theories of physics.
Computers, maths and mindsMost of us have a rough idea that computers are made up of complicated hardware and software. But perhaps few of us know that the concept of a computer was envisioned long before these machines became ubiquitous items in our homes, offices and even pockets.
How do we hallucinate?Geometric hallucinations are very common: people get them after taking drugs, following sensory deprivation, or even after rubbing their eyes. What can they tell us about how our brain works?
Picture perfectIn 2004 three physicists decided to dabble in a field they knew little about. Within weeks they had developed a new technique that transforms weeks' worth of computer calculations into something that could be done on a single page in an hour. It's used in particle accelerators such as the LHC at CERN.
Picture perfect, continued
Groups, geometry and Gromov
How close is close?
napier
The making of the logarithmThe natural logarithm is intimately related to the number e and that's how we learn about it at school. When it was first invented, though, people hadn't even heard of the number e and they weren't thinking about exponentiation either. How is that possible?