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The lungs of the Earth

How can maths help to understand the Southern Ocean, a vital component of the Earth's climate system?
Collection

Synchronised swimming

How do green algae manage a perfect breaststroke even though they haven't got a brain? The maths of synchronisation explains and even sheds light on human physiology and evolution.
Article
wave

Beneath the waves

Ocean waves are not moving walls of water. Instead, it's some kind of energy that moves along. But then, what happens to the water itself? This isn't just an idle question to ponder while watching the ocean — its answer may help protect us from it too. And it requires some sophisticated maths.

Article

Taming water waves

Few things in nature are as dramatic, and potentially dangerous, as ocean waves. The impact they have on our daily lives extends from shipping to the role they play in driving the global climate. From a theoretical viewpoint water waves pose rich challenges: solutions to the equations that describe fluid motion are elusive, and whether they even exist in the most general case is one of the hardest unanswered questions in mathematics.
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Births and deaths in fluid chaos

Describing the motion of fluids is a huge and unsolved mathematical problem. There are equations that seem to describe it well, but their complete solution is way beyond reach. But could there be a simpler method? The physicist Jerry Gollub tells Plus about a new discovery which combines experiment with sophisticated maths.

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Eye on the ball

Goal keepers defend against the maths of the new World Cup ball
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