Some of the Universe's most important secrets are hidden in the shape of a beautiful undulating curve: the power spectrum of the cosmic microwave spectrum. This article explains how.

To understand the why the cosmic microwave background tells us so much about the Universe, you first need to understand what created it: sound waves travelling through the early Universe.

The cosmic microwave background is the earliest light we can see in the Universe. So important is this baby picture of the Universe, it's been involved in two Nobel Prizes. Why?

Is the proposed ABBA rule for penalty shootouts really fairer than the existing rule? Maths shows that it is, and also suggests another, more subtle rule.

Statistics professor John Aston has been appointed as the Home Office's new Chief Scientific Adviser.

How Heron of Alexandria missed his chance to explore the unknown mathematical land of complex numbers.

Quantum particles that are both light and matter help solve infamous NP hard problems.

Want to understand chaos? Then have a look at this famous brainchild of the mathematician Stephen Smale.

Find out what gravitational waves will tell us about the Universe: from understanding its birth to figuring out whether black holes have hairs.

Find out about the heroic effort that led to the detection of gravitational waves and the excitement of their discovery.

This year's Abel Prize has been awarded to Yves Meyer for the development of an incredibly powerful mathematical tool.