Three new case studies have been posted to the IMA’s Mathematics Matters series. This aims to address the following problem: The industry and technology that surrounds us owes a great debt to modern mathematics research, yet this fact is perfectly hidden in its physical manifestation. The concern with this state of affairs is that what…
Alan Turing Pardon: Early Day Motion
John Leech MP, on his blog, reports having submitted an Early Day Motion (EDM) to Parliament calling for a pardon for Alan Turing. The Parliament website defines EDMs: Early day motions (EDMs) are tabled by MPs to publicise a particular event or cause, and to gather support among MPs for that event or cause. MPs…
A dozen stats tips for journalists
A post on the website of the getstats campaign offers a dozen tips for journalists, who “increasingly have to have at least minimal competence in understanding stats and data, if they are going to do a creditable job”. From a warning to think about the motivation of whoever “cooked up” the number in a press…
2012 BSA Media Fellows – call for applications
In Math/Maths 78: Researchers and the Media Special we spoke to Nathan Green, a researcher who had done a Media Fellowship with the British Science Association. These aim to bridge the communication gap between scientists and journalists and give space for a dialogue between the two. They reflect the British Science Association’s commitment to increasing…
Puzzle from Maths Jam Nottingham: Kathryn’s cube of cheese
At Maths Jam Nottingham January 2012, Kathryn brought this puzzle. Kathryn has a cube made of cheese. Her question is simple: What is the smallest number of tetrahedra (not necessarily regular) that you can cut the cube into, leaving no cheese left over? If you think you’ve solved this, see the solution page below for…
How to get beautifully typeset maths on your blog
Lots of people have blogs where they talk about maths. Lots of these people just use plain text for mathematical notation which, while it gets the point across, isn’t as easy to read or as visually appealing as it could be. MathJax lets you write LaTeX and get beautifully typeset mathematical notation. And it’s really really…
Apparently Gauss got in this bar fight with Hilbert…
The title is silly, of course, but is meant to refer to a problem with historical accuracy. I have had this blog post in draft for a long time and I am struggling to finish it. I would like to talk about an area in which I appear to have cognitive dissonance. I’m intending to…