Plus 1000 — Mathematical lives

One of the many strange ideas from quantum mechanics is that space isn't continuous but consists of tiny chunks. Ordinary geometry is useless when it comes to dealing with such a space, but algebra makes it possible to come up with a model of spacetime that might do the trick. And it can all be tested by a satellite. Shahn Majid met up with Plus to explain.

We may not have found life out there, but there is a hexagon on Saturn.

A public discussion explores deep questions

Asteroid just missed Earth

On the 25th of May 1997 a dramatic collision tore a hole into the space station Mir and sent it hurtling through space. As NASA astronaut Michael Foale tells Plus, the fate of Mir and its crew hinged on a classical set of equations.

The next total eclipse of the Sun will be in March 2006

A brief history of time keeping

In the last issue Lewis Dartnell explained how chaos on the brain is not only unavoidable but also beneficial. Now he tells us why the same is true for our solar system and sends us on a journey that has been travelled by comets and spacecraft.

Has the precious cargo of the crashed Genesis mission survived to tell us about the origins of our solar system?

Mathematics makes a clean sweep in the Nobel Prizes.

Science writer and exhibition researcher Alison Boyle tells Plus about her work creating up-to-the-minute news exhibits at the Science Museum in London.