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Want facts and want them fast? Our Maths in a minute series explores key mathematical concepts in just a few words.
Generating electricity without the use of fossil fuels is not just an engineering and industrial challenge, it is also a huge mathematical challenge.
In this podcast author Coralie Colmez shares insights into her novel The irrational diary of Clara Valentine.
We talk to early career mathematicians who spent some of their summer holiday solving problems posed by industry — such as how to blend a perfect smoothie!
Don't like plant-based meat alternatives, but want to spare animals and the environment? There's hope on the horizon, aided by a good helping of maths.
Inverse problems are mathematical detective problems. They can help solve crimes, are used in medical imaging, and much more.
The reductionist conclusion that such visions are "simply" reflective of the brain's wiring, along with the comments condemning the "absurdity" of the poster who indicated a metaphysical connection, has as its basis a false dichotomy - that is that these patterns cannot simultaneously reflect both the brain's wiring or structure and "part of what makes up our reality." Why can it not be both? In fact, I posit that that is indeed the case. My background is in math, and I experimented "back in the day" with LSD. What I have concluded is that the very real mathematical patterns we find in nature are those same patterns that are seen in induced hallucinations as described. The patterns that I saw when on LSD I now easily perceive throughout nature sans any "substantial help!" In other words, the patterns are easily observed without any induction. I would argue that these harmonious and integrated patterns that are found both in nature AND the brain are what allow perception, intelligible decoding of physical information around us, etc. In other words, the fact that there is some ordering principle that pervades the cosmos, ourselves included - our brains included, points to a cohesive framework of perception and intelligibility. I would further argue the metaphysical position that this ordering principle points to a transcendent reality and intelligence that pervades all of reality including the human person. I would call that intelligence "God," and am grateful that somehow we are connected to it all!