Rachel Thomas

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En-Abeled

Winning the first Abel Prize just might elevate mathematician Jean-Pierre Serre to celebrity status!
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Through the looking-glass

Some molecules - thalidomide, for example - come in both left and right handed versions, while others are indistinguishable from their reflections. Plus finds out about the role of mathematical symmetry in chemistry.
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Getting into the picture

Imagine stepping inside your favourite painting, walking around the light-filled music room of Vermeer's "The Music Lesson" or exploring the chapel in the "Trinity" painted by Masaccio in the 15th century. Using the mathematics of perspective, researchers are now able to produce three-dimensional reconstructions of the scenes depicted in these works.

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All tied up

What do tying your shoe laces and Santa's Christmas Eve journey have in common?
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Safety in numbers

Today's digital world with its free flow of information, would not exist without cryptography to guarantee our privacy. Plus meets mathematician, author and broadcaster Simon Singh to find out about the science of secrecy.
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aliens

Games, Life and the Game of Life

When we finally meet the Martians, John Conway believes they are going to want to talk mathematics. He talks to Plus about his Life game, artificial life and what we will have in common with extraterrestrials.

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Maths in the dock

Chemists John Watling and Allen Thomas talk to Plus about the vital role of maths in presenting criminal evidence.
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RIP Claude Shannon

Claude Shannon, who died on February 24, was the founder of Information Theory, which is the basis of modern telecommunications. Rachel Thomas looks at Shannon's life and works.
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Mathematical mysteries: Zeno's Paradoxes

The paradoxes of the philosopher Zeno, born approximately 490 BC in southern Italy, have puzzled mathematicians, scientists and philosophers for millennia. Although none of his work survives today, over 40 paradoxes are attributed to him which appeared in a book he wrote as a defense of the philosophies of his teacher Parmenides.
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