How do you best allocate students to universities, doctors to hospitals, or kidneys to transplant patients? It's a tough problem that has earned this year's Memorial Prize in Economics.

Andy Murray and Laura Robson made a good team at London 2012, bringing home silver in the mixed doubles. But how do you make sure that the competing pair is the best you can pick from the team?

Is it rational to believe in a god? The most famous rational argument in favour of belief was made by Blaise Pascal, but what happens if we apply modern game theory to the question?

Sometimes people are nasty when it would have been better to be nice.

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.

The 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics goes to two unusual economists

José-Manuel Rey unveils the curse of attractiveness

Game theorists model the evolution of trust and trustworthiness

José-Manuel Rey revisits a scene of the film A beautiful Mind.

Jet engines, aircraft carriers and telecommunications networks — these are just some of the things that Nira Chamberlain has modelled. And while he's figuring out defence logistics, he's also pursuing a pure mathematical interest in games. Find out what mathematical modelling can do and why it can also make you slim and fluent in French.

Ground breaking work in uncovering optimal funding mechanisms in financial markets

Two game theorists share prize for their analyses of conflict and cooperation