We may be a little closer to a direct detection of dark energy thanks to a new result that came about, in a sense, by accident.

Today is Ada Lovelace Day, held on the second Tuesday in October every year, to celebrate the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The day is in honour of Ada Lovelace, a female mathematician and pioneer in computing who was born over 200 years ago. We celebrate with some of our friends, all women doing pioneering work using machine learning in a wide range of applications.

Last week we were lucky enough to attend the 100th anniversary celebration of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), which was marked with a conference entitled Mathematics without borders. The conference took place in Strasbourg, on the occasion of the IMU's 101st birthday — like so many other events, it had been planned for 2020, but was postponed due to the pandemic.