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    Exploding stars clinch Nobel Prize

    Marianne Freiberger

    When Einstein formulated his general theory of relativity he noticed something disturbing. According to his equations, gravity should cause the Universe to contract until it eventually collapses in on itself in a big crunch. This idea jarred with Einstein, so he introduced a repulsive component of gravity into his equations which exactly balanced the attractive one, giving an elegantly static Universe. The term became known as the cosmological constant.

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    mathematical reality
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    A fly walks round a football

    What makes a perfect football? Anyone who plays or simply watches the game could quickly list the qualities. The ball must be round, retain its shape, be bouncy but not too lively and, most importantly, be capable of impressive speeds. We find out that this last point is all down to the ball's surface, the most prized research goal in ball design.
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    Meet the gyroid

    What do butterflies, ketchup, microcellular structures, and plastics have in common? It's a curious minimal surface called the gyroid.
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    Outer space: A very peculiar principle

    If you manage a large organisation, then people will come and go. There are always decisions to make about promoting people, promising newcomers versus experienced middle managers, all of whom are aspiring to move up the corporate ladder. But is it better to promote the least competent rather than the most competent? Some new research suggests that it may be.
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    carrot

    This is not a carrot: Paraconsistent mathematics

    Paraconsistent mathematics is a type of mathematics in which contradictions may be true. In such a system it is perfectly possible for a statement A and its negation not A to both be true. How can this be, and be coherent? What does it all mean?
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    hourglass with clock behind

    What is time?

    Everyone knows what time is. We can practically feel it ticking away, marching on in the same direction with horrifying regularity. Time has enslaved the Western world and become our most precious commodity. Turn it over to the physicists however, and it begins to morph, twist and even crumble away. So what is time exactly?
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    Time and the multiverse

    Why can we remember the past and not the future? Why does time appear to move in only one direction when the laws of physics have no preferred direction in time? According to one physicist, it might be because we live in a bubble multiverse.
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    The crystallising Universe

    According to Einstein, the past, present and future have exactly the same character - so why do we feel that there is a particular moment we call "now"? The physicist George Ellis looks for an answer in the curious laws of quantum mechanics.
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    The only way is up: constructing the Heron Tower

    Looking out to Canary Wharf, to the arch at Wembley Stadium, and down onto the Gherkin, the 700 people working on the construction site of the Heron Tower in London had one of the best views in London. Plus was lucky enough to speak to two engineers involved in building the tower and asked how maths was involved in the construction of such an impressive addition to the London skyline.
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    velodrome

    How the velodrome found its form

    The Velodrome, with its striking curved shape, was the first venue to be completed in the London Olympic Park. Plus talks to structural engineers Andrew Weir and Pete Winslow from Expedition Engineering, who were part of the design team for the Velodrome, about how mathematics helped create its iconic shape.