The Abel Prize 2009 goes to Mikhail Gromov

The computer animation used in movies and games is now so lifelike, it is very hard to believe that you are actually watching a surface built from simple shapes of triangles. Phil Dench tells Plus how he uses mathematics to help bring these models to life.

Cambridge celebrates 25 years since the first very early Universe workshop

Squares do it, triangles do it, even hexagons do it — but pentagons don't. They just won't fit together to tile a flat surface. So are there any tilings based on fiveness? Craig Kaplan takes us through the five-fold tiling problem and uncovers some interesting designs in the process.

A Beautiful Mathematical Method for Modelling Viruses

Geometry is power

If you've ever redecorated a bathroom, you'll know that there are only so many ways in which you can tile a flat plane. But once you move into the curved world of hyperbolic geometry, possibilities become endless and the most amazing fractal structures ensue. Caroline Series and David Wright give a short introduction to the maths behind their beautiful images.

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.

You might know the famous formula for an area of a circle, but why does this formula work? Tom Körner's explanation really is a piece of cake, served up with a hefty estimate of pi.

Mathematicians offer new proof of quasicrystals' strange electronic properties.

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