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A rare view of Venus

The Venus transit on June 8 gives us the chance to measure the scale of the Solar System.
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How the leopard got its spots

How does the uniform ball of cells that make up an embryo differentiate to create the dramatic patterns of a zebra or leopard? How come there are spotty animals with stripy tails, but no stripy animals with spotty tails? Lewis Dartnell solves these, and other, puzzles of animal patterning.
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Running a lottery, for beginners

There are many different types of lottery around the world, but they all share a common aim: to make money. John Haigh explains why lotteries are the way they are.

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101 uses of a quadratic equation: Part II

In issue 29 of Plus, we heard how a simple mathematical equation became the subject of a debate in the UK parliament. Chris Budd and Chris Sangwin continue the story of the mighty quadratic equation.

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Mathematics for aliens

It has often been observed that mathematics is astonishingly effective as a tool for understanding the universe. But, asks Phil Wilson, why should this be? Is mathematics a universal truth, and how would we tell?
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Editorial

  • Editorial trends - According to current trends, this editorial will never get written!
  • I've got your number - Soon the maths-phobic will have nowhere left to hide.
News story

Post-14 post-Smith

A UK government inquiry into maths education has the statistics community worried.
Article

The UK National Lottery - a guide for beginners

In the early days of the UK National Lottery, it was quite common to see newspaper articles that looked back on what numbers had recently been drawn, and attempted to identify certain numbers as "due" or "hot". Few such articles appear now, and John Haigh thinks that perhaps the publicity surrounding the lottery has enhanced the nation's numeracy.