News from the world of maths: Magic, origami, climate change and stupid equations: maths at the British Science Festival

The 2009 British Science Festival is celebrating creativity, innovation and evolution with a huge range of events over 5 days, from 5 - 10 September at the University of Surrey. And being all those things, Mathematics will be the star of the show, with a fantastic programme of events:

• The Magic of Computer Science — A clever conjuring show which challenges the audience to work out how the tricks are done. Performed by Peter McOwan, professor of computer science at Queen Mary University of London. (Saturday 5 September)
• Mathematics and Meltdown: How Financial Systems Collapse — Plus author Tim Johnson and Mark Robson answer the questions: How do we model what goes on in the City when the structures are changing so rapidly? And what is the role of statistics in modelling the speculation and high levels of interdependency across markets today? (Saturday 5 September )
• From Flapping Birds to Space Telescopes: The Modern Science of Origami — Robert Lang, an artist and expert on the mathematics of origami shows how its theorems illuminated long-standing mathematical questions and solved practical engineering problems which even have applications in space. (Sunday 6 September)
• Why do journalists love stupid equations? — Simon Singh, journalist and documentary maker, asks why the press are suckers for pseudo-mathematical formulas which PR companies cynically use to create quick and easy news stories. (Presidential lecture Sunday 6 September)
• Chaos in Climate: An Inconvenient Truth? — Being able to make sense of the chaos in weather and climate is one of our greatest triumphs. Ian Roulstone and Lucia Elghali, from the University of Surrey show how mathematical modelling is also helping us to devise strategies for adapting to a changing climate. Tuesday 8 September
• Fly Me to the Moon — Going back to the moon is the latest focus for space travel. But new mission designs mean sophisticated new mathematical techniques will be needed. Explore with Mark Roberts and Phil Palmer from the University of Surrey. (Thursday 10 September)

For more information about the festival visit www.britishsciencefestival.org or call 0207 019 4947. And you can read more about magic, finance, climate change and space travel on Plus.