New research looks at how language is used to convey information in context, something which is, according to its abstract “one of the most astonishing features of human language”. Apparently there have been “many” theories providing “informal accounts of communicative inference” but few have succeeded in making “precise, quantitative predictions about pragmatic reasoning”.
First International Data Journalism Awards winners announced
The Royal Statistical Society reports on the award of the first International Data Journalism Awards (DJA) organised by the Global Editors Network (GEN). Data journalism is described in the piece by DJA jury leader Paul Steiger, who said that “digital techniques for capturing and making sense of data are taking their place among the most…
The mathematics examinations faced by school leavers in the Republic of Ireland
This Friday, close to 13,000 students in the Republic of Ireland are set to take higher level maths in the Leaving Certificate, the state exams for 17-18 year old school leavers. That’s the highest number for two decades, and a 25% increase on last year’s all-time low of 10,400 who registered to sit the higher…
New York Museum of Mathematics will open on December 15th, 2012
An announcement has been made on Twitter that the long-awaited Museum of Mathematics will be opening on Saturday, December 15, at 11 East 26th Street in New York City.
The Moment
A new post is available over at Second-Rate Minds by Samuel Hansen. I interview a lot of mathematicians and one of my favorite topics is the origin story, the why behind their study of mathematics. I have received answers that range from heavy Martin Gardner influence to falling in sideways from engineering. One thing that…
Mathematics in Education and Industry Conference 2012
The Mathematics in Education and Industry Conference 2012 will take place 28-30 June at the University of Keele.
Model suggests factors affecting size and shape of platelet blood cells
A collaboration between mathematicians and biologists has discovered “why platelets, the cells that form blood clots, are the size and shape that they are”, a better understanding of which “could have wide implications [for] healing wounds and in strokes and other conditions”.