The Aperiodical 

You're reading: Posts Tagged: Alan Bloody Turing

Registration for 2019 Alan Turing Cryptography Competition and MathsBombe is open

By Katie Steckles. Posted December 12, 2018

The Alan Turing Cryptography Competition, now in its 7th year, is an online competition run by the University of Manchester School of Mathematics, for school students up to year 11 or equivalent. Cryptographic puzzles are released every couple of weeks and teams of up to four compete to solve the puzzles, with prizes for the fastest and other randomly selected correct entries. Registrations are open now, and the competition starts on 28th January 2019.

For sixth form pupils, there is also MathsBombe – an online competition, with two mathematical puzzles released every fortnight. The puzzles are not directly related to the A-Level syllabus but will require students to use their problem-solving skills.

Further information

Alan Turing Cryptography Competition
MathsBombe

Not Mentioned on the Aperiodical, 10th November 2016

By Christian Lawson-Perfect and Katie Steckles. Posted November 10, 2016

Here’s a round-up of some of the news from this month.

Never-ending Turing centenary, part XLVI

The Alan Turing centenary shows no signs of abating.

First of all, there’s a marvellous new art installation under Paddington Bridge in London, in memory of Turing. There’s also a theatre piece called Breaking the Code, showing at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre until 19th November.

Secondly, work continues to introduce legislation in the UK pardoning all gay men who were convicted of crimes related to homosexuality, in the same way Alan was a few years ago. Ministers said they were ‘committed’ to getting the law passed, but in an emotional session the bill was “talked out” by minister Sam Gyimah, meaning it wasn’t voted on.

LMS wins the first Royal Society Athena prize

The London Mathematical Society (LMS) has been honoured this autumn by receiving the first Royal Society Athena Prize to recognise its advancement of diversity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) within the mathematical community. The prize was awarded in a ceremony at the Royal Society’s annual diversity conference on 31 October.

Royal Society press release

Fourth Christopher Zeeman medal goes to Rob Eastaway

Mathematician, author and friend of the site Rob Eastaway has received the 2016 Christopher Zeeman medal, awarded to recognise and acknowledge the contributions of mathematicians involved in promoting mathematics to the public and engaging with the public in mathematics in the UK.

There will be an award lecture taking place on 22 March 2017, and details will be announced in Mathematics Today and the LMS Newsletter.

IMA website article on the award
Rob Eastaway’s citation (PDF)

Fresh Turing preprints!

By Christian Lawson-Perfect. Posted May 26, 2015



A couple of papers by Alan Turing have appeared on the arXiv.

No, that’s right – The Applications of Probability to Cryptography and The Statistics of Repetitions are two papers Turing wrote during the Second World War, and they’re now available on the arXiv, transcribed into modern LaTeX by Ian Taylor.

An Alan Turing expert answers your The Imitation Game questions

By James Grime. Posted November 18, 2014



The Imitation Game is the new film starring Sherlock Holmes as Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing, and Keira Knightley as Kate Winslet as Joan Clarke. Together they are two mathematicians in World War II trying to build a bombe. The film will soon be available on DVD, blu-ray, and as an animated GIF set on tumblr.

These are the Imitation Game FAQs.

Orchestral Biography of Turing

By Katie Steckles. Posted April 25, 2014

In an effort to save us from having to write up yet another Alan Turing-based news story, Adam Goucher over at Complex Projective 4-Space has kindly done it for us. Thanks, Adam!

Read: Orchestral Biography of Turing, at Complex Projective 4-Space

LASER TURING

By Katie Steckles. Posted March 9, 2014



Since we’re the leading authority on Alan Turing news stories, and since it’s clear that anything is improved by the addition of LASERS, we’re proud to report that the Manchester Histories Festival, taking place across Manchester on March 21-28, will include LASER ALAN TURING.

The centrepiece of the festival will be a laser light show at MediaCity in Salford, playing throughout the festival; it will include a ‘thank you’ message to Alan Turing, in morse code, by artist Craig Morrison, and involves two mile laser beams. The Histories Festival says:

The art is a tribute to the impact he continues to have on how we live today in a digitally connected world.

More information

Laser light spectacular to pay tribute to Alan Turing at festival at the Manchester Evening News

Thank you event page

Manchester Histories Festival

Alan Turing receives Royal Pardon

By Katie Steckles. Posted December 24, 2013

It was announced this morning that mathematician and codebreaker Alan Turing has been posthumously granted a pardon for his conviction in 1952 for gross indecency. The pardon is issued under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy by the Queen, after intervention from justice secretary Chris Grayling. The conviction was at the time standard for persons found to be practising homosexuals, and was applied to more than 50,000 cases. Turing’s punishment was chemical castration, although many others in his situation were sent to prison.