E8 symmetry discovered in lab for the first time

Did you know that church bell ringers have to memorise sequences of several thousand numbers, and that it can take up to 18 hours to translate these sequences into perfect bell ringing? Burkard Polster and Marty Ross explain why, and explore the maths behind bell ringing.

The Abel Prize 2009 goes to Mikhail Gromov

With the credit crunch dominating the news, columnists have been wailing about "chaos in the markets", and "turbulent" share prices. But what does move the markets? Are they deterministic, or a result of chance? Colva Roney-Dougal explores the maths, from chaos to group theory.

Prestigious mathematics prize goes to group theorists

A Beautiful Mathematical Method for Modelling Viruses

Plus 1000 — Mathematical lives

Computer scientists prove how long it should take you to solve Rubik's cube

Mathematicians pin down symmetry

Winner of the general public category. Enormous is the right word: this theorem's proof spans over 10,000 pages in 500 journal articles and no-one today understands all its details. So what does the theorem say? Richard Elwes has a short and sweet introduction.

Groups are some of the most fundamental objects in maths. Take a system of interacting objects and strip it to the bone to see what makes it tick, and very often you're faced with a group. Colva Roney-Dougal takes us into their abstract world and puzzles over a game of Solitaire.

Tope Omitola looks back at the tragically short but inspiringly productive life of a true original: Evariste Galois.