Articles

  • article

    How does your garden grow?

    The division of plant cells is governed by their shape – just one example of how maths may reveal the fundamental laws underlying biology.
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    Why we want proof

    What are mathematical proofs, why do we need them and what can they say about sheep?

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    Sexual statistics

    David Spiegelhalter's new book Sex by numbers takes a statistical peek into the nation's bedrooms. In this interview he tells us some of his favourite stories from the book. Read the article or watch the video!
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    Information: Baby steps

    If I tell you that it's Monday today, then you know it's not any of the other six days of the week. Perhaps the information content of my statement should be measured in terms of the number of all the other possibilities it excludes? Back in the 1920s this consideration led to a very simple formula to measure information.
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    Information is sophistication

    Kolmogorov complexity gives a high value to strings of symbols that are essentially random. But isn't randomness essentially meaningless? Should a measure of information assign a low value to it? The concept of sophistication addresses this question.
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    Information is surprise

    If I tell you something you already know, then that's not very informative. So perhaps information should be measured in terms of unexpectedness, or surprise?