News

The strawberries are out and it's raining... so it must be Wimbledon time! If you're trying to while away the time waiting for the covers to come off the court then give Cliff Richard a break and take a look at some of the great tennis articles and puzzles here on Plus!

Speaking maths

We often think of mathematics as a language, but does our brain process mathematical structures in the same way as it processes language? A new study published in the journal Psychological Science suggests that it does: the process of storing and reusing syntax "works across cognitive domains."

Browse with Plus: The scale of the Universe

How big is the Universe? And how small is the smallest thing within it? This cute website developed by Cary Huang puts things into perspective. It lets you explore the entire range of scales, from the smallest length (the Planck length) all the way up to the entire Universe, via atoms, people, giant earthworms, planets, galaxies and more.

Maths in a minute - levers

Kneeling in the mud by a country road on a cold drizzly day, I finally appreciated the wonder that is a lever. I was trying to change a flat tyre and even jumping on the end of the wheel wrench wouldn't budge the wheel nuts. But when the AA arrived they undid them with ease, thanks to a wheel wrench that was three times the size of mine. There you have it ... size really does matter!

Struggling with your maths?

If you are, then you may be one of the 5 to 7% of the population suffering from dyscalculia, the mathematical equivalent of dyslexia. But unlike many dyslexia sufferers, you probably haven't received the help you need to cope with your condition. As a recent article published in the journal Science points out, dyscalculia is the "poor relation" of dyslexia.

Find out about the applications of origami — Maths-Art seminar on 9 June

If you've ever marvelled at the elegance of a paper crane or just struggled to refold a map you will enjoy the next Maths-Art seminar from the London Knowledge Lab.

Listening out for alien life

Astronomers have this month trained the world's largest steerable radio telescope on 86 Earth-like planets. The data collected by the telescope will later be analsyed by an estimated one million amateur alien hunters, users of SETI@home, for messages from other civilisations.

Guilt counts

Guilt, so some people have suggested, is what makes us nice. When we do someone a favour or choose not to exploit someone vulnerable, we do it because we fear the guilt we'd feel otherwise. A team of neuroscientists, psychologists and economists have this month produced some new results in this area, using a model from psychological game theory.

European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad – Talent Search

A talent search has just begun to find competitors to represent the UK in the first ever European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO). But why should a girls-only competition be held and what do we hope to achieve?

Maths in a minute: Triangles

Ah the humble triangle. This simple shape is one of the first we ever learn. But perhaps you didn't realise just how important triangles are...

Browse with Plus — Math Encounters

We came across the excellent Math Encouters Blog through their post Dimensional Analysis and Olympic Rowing, a response to a New Scientist article by Plus author, John Barrow. Math Encounters is about those problems we might encounter any day where a little bit of math can really help.

Neuro-tweets: #hashtagging the brain

We like to think of the human brain as special, but as we reported on Plus last year, it has quite a lot in common with worm brains and even with high-performance information processing systems. But how does it compare to online social networks? In a recent lecture the psychiatrist Ed Bullmore put this question to the test.