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László Lovász has won one half of the Abel Prize 2021 for fundamental contributions to theoretical computer science and discrete maths.
New episodes of Pointless, the addictive TV quiz show, return today! Celebrate with John Haigh and some fascinating Pointless maths!
Recently we had to learn about tensors for an upcoming article. Although they seem confusing at first, they are just a way of capturing information we are all used to. Nothing to feel tense about!
Foraging ants have a hard life, embarking on long and arduous trips several times a day, until they drop dead from exhaustion. The trips are not just long, they also follow complex zig-zag paths. So how do ants manage to find their way back home? And how do they manage to do so along a straight line? Their secret lies in a little geometry.
When insects go foraging, they zoom off from their nest in complex zig-zag paths. How do they manage to find their way back home? And how do they manage to do so along a straight path? These questions are explored in an exhibit at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition, currently taking place at the Southbank Centre in London.
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.
This issue's teacher package brings together all Plus articles on vectors and matrices, exploring anything from the maths of computer movies to climate change. It also has some handy links to related problems on our sister site NRICH.
Josefina Alvarez describes the workings of the most famous search engine of them all. You'll need some linear algebra for this one, but it's worth the while!
The Arctic ice cap is melting fast and the consequences are grim. Mathematical modelling is key to predicting how much longer the ice will be around and assessing the impact of an ice free Arctic on the rest of the planet. Plus spoke to Peter Wadhams from the Polar Ocean Physics Group at the University of Cambridge to get a glimpse of the group's work.