Helen Joyce

Article

Mathematical mysteries: Survival of the nicest?

One of the most puzzling aspects of human behaviour is cooperation, in situations where backstabbing and selfishness would seem to be more rewarding. From the point of view of evolutionary theory, the very existence of altruism and cooperation appear mysterious.
Article

Plus leaves the classroom

Former Plus editor Helen Joyce explains how Plus made it big as a part of our series to celebrate Plus's tenth anniversary.
Article

Life as we don't know it

Physicist and cosmologist Paul Davies has made an unusual move into the infant discipline of astrobiology. He tells Plus about his interest in the big questions: what is life, how would we recognise aliens - and are they all around us?
News story

Who do you trust?

Statisticians welcome a call to make official statistics independent - but can it really be done in one hour?
Article
quaternions

Curious quaternions

Mathematician and physicist John Baez declares himself fascinated by exceptions in mathematics. This interest has led him to study the octonions, and, through them, to find out more about the origins of complex numbers and quaternions. In the first of two articles, he talks about connections between algebra and geometry, and the importance of lateral thinking in mathematics.

News story

Post-14 post-Smith

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

A conversation with Freeman Dyson

The 2003 Dirac Lecturer, distinguished physicist Freeman Dyson, tells Plus why he is an optimist, what makes life interesting and why old-fashioned maths is what you need for physics.
News story
Tesselating fish

Mind the gap

Can Dan Goldston and Cem Yalcin Yildrim repair the hole in their proof to make the biggest breakthrough in prime number theory for 80 years?
Article

The crystal ball

If you had a crystal ball that allowed you to see your future, what would you arrange differently about your finances? Plus talks to the Government Actuary, Chris Daykin about the pensions crisis, and how actuaries use statistical and modelling techniques to plan for all our futures.
Article

Dashing along

Currently, disabled computer users have a hard time inputting text, using laborious word-completion. Plus find out how this is changing, thanks to Dasher, a new open-source text-entry system based on arithmetic coding.
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