Content about “

mathematical modelling

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How the maths that is used to predict earthquakes can help fight gang crime.

How stupid systems can use clever ways of finding things.

El Niño is a climate event without equal, causing droughts, floods, hurricanes and typhoons around the globe. How can we understand and predict it?

Why maths is an important tool in the fight against Ebola.

How maths helps us understand and fight infectious diseases.

In the first part of this article we let maths set the scene for a free kick. Now we continue the drama, tracing the trajectory of the ball throughout the milliseconds it takes it to reach the goal line.

A new study suggests that Facebook is heading for a very rapid decline.

Geometric hallucinations are very common: people get them after taking drugs, following sensory deprivation, or even after rubbing their eyes. What can they tell us about how our brain works?

If chemistry makes you think of white lab coats and green liquids then think again. This year's Nobel prize goes to three researchers who "took chemical experiment into cyberspace".

A team of Australian researchers has delivered dire news for polar ecosystems, predicting that in some regions biodiversity may be reduced by as much as a third within decades. It's the result of a tipping point induced by global warming.

Some things are so familiar to us that they are simply expected, and we may forget to wonder why they should be that way in the first place. Sex ratios are a good example of this: the number of men and women in the world is roughly equal, but why should this be the case? A simple mathematical argument provides an answer.