A question that has puzzled many inquiring minds across the ages is: why are honeycombs made of hexagonal cells?
Apiological: mathematical speculations about bees (Part 1: Honeycomb geometry)
Review: The Mathematics of Love
This is a review of The Mathematics of Love: Patterns, Proofs and the search for the Ultimate Equation by Hannah Fry, a new book which Katie was sent an advance copy of. 3rd February 2015 (hardcover); Simon & Schuster/TED Hannah Fry, who’s a lecturer and public engagement fellow at UCL, has written a book. Following a…
Why Should Penguins Care About Maths?
I regularly review resources written for pupils and teachers that in some way aim to support or extend Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. The most recent campaign in the UK is the Your Life campaign and as usual it has a website with short articles designed for teachers and pupils to browse and…
Doctor Who and the Quaternions – the LMS’ 150th birthday party
A report by Richard Elwes from the launch of the London Mathematical Society’s 150th birthday year.
Counting From Infinity – A film about Yitang Zhang
Following 2013’s amazing bounded gaps between primes result, mathematician Yitang Zhang has gone from an unknown maths lecturer to a mathematical celebrity. The Mathematical Research Sciences Institute at Berkeley has put together a film telling the story of Zhang’s proof, and his life before and after the announcement. The film, which was funded by the Simons…
Review: “The Theory of Everything”
A few days ago, friend of The Aperiodical James Grime contacted me asking if I would be able to review The Theory of Everything. Obviously I was flattered. In a past life I did some mathematics/physics in the same ballpark as Hawking’s celebrated black-hole work so guessed James was asking because he knew I used…
Mathematician wins ‘Oscar’
This year’s Oscars ceremony, which will take place on 22nd February, will honour those who’ve achieved greatness in film-making, performance, scoring, sound and production. You may not know that in addition to the main ceremony, the Academy also has an untelevised award ceremony taking place two weeks earlier, called the Academy Scientific and Technical Awards (nerd Oscars).…