There was no Recreational Maths Seminar last Sunday because I had a confluence of work, family stuff and overknackeredness from MathsJam the week before. The coming weekend should be considerably less busy, so let’s have our second seminar this Sunday, the second of December, at 7pm GMT. That’s 2pm EST (New York), 11am PST(California) and 6am EDT (Eastern Australia, on the 3rd of December).
You're reading: Yearly Archives: 2012
GCHQ recruits maths, physics and computing experts to analyse social networks
The Guardian is reporting that the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is to trawl social networks for intelligence.
The Cheltenham-based organisation is recruiting maths, physics and computing experts to devise groundbreaking algorithms that will automatically extract information from huge volumes of speech, text and image content gathered “across the full range of modern communications media”.
Read the full article: GCHQ to trawl Facebook and Twitter for intelligence at The Guardian
Previously: Foreign Office gives Bletchley Park £480,000 and announces GCHQ apprenticeships
The Joy of $x$, by Steven Strogatz
Steven Strogatz has written a book based on his series of columns for the New York Times, The Elements of Math. The book’s called The Joy of $x$, and Steven’s recorded a trailer for it. I bet he hopes the trailer will convince you to buy the book.
[youtube url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPttaSg8ySc]
World Record Rubik’s Cube Solve
This Wednesday, friend of The Aperiodical Matt Parker compered an event at London’s O2 Arena in which the world record for most simultaneous Rubik’s cube solves was smashed by a crowd including schools groups, individuals, maths fans and the UK’s current speedsolving champion, Robert Yau.
Towards a working definition of the terrifying numbers
Someone — it may have been Matt Parker — told the MathsJam conference last weekend there was now a terrifying number of monthly MathsJam meetups, and a murmur went around the room. It was just about the only audience in the world where more than a couple of people would have asked “how do you define a terrifying number?”
Tying knots in light
According to this post on phys.org, which reports on this paper in science journal Nature, there’s some beautiful physics which results from tying knots in light. It opens, “New research published today seeks to push the discovery that light can be tied in knots to the next level.” Between us, I wasn’t actually aware of the discovery that light can be tied in knots (and I’ve done a fair amount of knot theory, and observed a decent quantity of light) – but apparently it’s something scientists have been exploring for years.
A spinning optical soliton (wave pulse) can spontaneously create knotted and linked structures, as the soliton curves around in space, and while previously it’s been observed after engineering them to happen, now the knots are forming spontaneously, like ” those annoying knots that you always get in electrical cables.” (see: here). The paper suggests similar behaviour might be seen in other types of wavefronts, such as superfluids and trapped matter waves. For anyone who got lost around ‘soliton’, rest assured it involves the use of lasers. Obviously.
More information
Beautiful physics: tying knots in light on phys.org.
Undergraduate conference: Tomorrow’s Mathematicians Today 2013
Tomorrow’s Mathematicians Today 2013 is the second undergraduate mathematics conference to be hosted by the University of Greenwich Department of Mathematical Sciences, with support from the IMA and GCHQ, on Saturday 16 February 2013. Undergraduate students are encouraged to submit an abstract by 1pm on Friday 14 December for a talk on a mathematical topic of their choice. As well as a day of engaging student talks, a keynote lecture will be given by Professor Robin Wilson on ‘Leonhard Euler: Life, Labours and Legacy’. The website promises that
those going into research will gain experience of the process of conference submission, while those going into the workplace will gain valuable experience of professional practice and networking to enhance their CVs and career prospects. Speakers will additionally gain evidence of their professional skills. All delegates will gain insights into a wide range of mathematics of potential value in their future careers. It should be a wonderfully enjoyable day of inspiring mathematics.
I was involved in organising the first Tomorrow’s Mathematicians Today conference in 2010 and at the time I wrote a piece for Mathematics Today explaining why I felt students should attend such an event, which you can read as ‘Improving graduate skills through an undergraduate conference‘.
Registrations have already been received from eleven UK universities.
More information: Tomorrow’s Mathematicians Today.