We experience phase transitions every day, but they are some of the most dramatic events nature presents us with. Here's a quick introduction.
We explore the maths that helps explain this well-known phenomenon, which says that any two people around the world are likely to be connected through a surprisingly short chain of acquaintance links.
Random walks are great for modelling anything that moves, from particles to people. They're also fun, versatile and beautiful!
Julian Sahasrabudhe wins a Whitehead Prize for combining different areas of maths using the power of combinatorics.
Even simple rules can lead to interesting processes. Play with Conway's famous cellular automaton to see life-like patterns unfold.
When a new infectious disease enters a population everything depends on who catches it — superspreaders or people with few contacts who don't pass it on. We investigate the stochastic nature of the early stages of an outbreak.
Hannah Fry will join us at the University of Cambridge in January as Cambridge's first Professor for the Public Understanding of Mathematics!
Worried about your population of bugs? A branching process can help you understand it.
Physicists have figured out how we might detect hypothetical boson stars. If we do, then this would count as a major step towards solving the riddle of dark matter,
Experts in public health, industry and disease modelling came together this summer to discuss how maths can prepare for the next pandemic.
Trying to solve a Rubik's cube? A Cayley graph gives you a road map for doing this — and is similarly useful for dealing with any other type of mathematical group!
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly important in our society, can philosophy offer us a way to explain decisions made by AI systems?
