Mathematics is a creative pursuit so it's not surprising that there are communalities between maths and art in all its forms. In this episode we explore the intersection between maths and art with physicist Andrzej Herczyński and mathematician Paul Glendinning. Andrzej Herczyński Andrzej and Paul were two of the organisers of the workshop Space, scale and scaling in art, which recently took place at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cambridge. We find out about the rich dialogue that can ensue between artists and mathematicians, how maths and physics c ..read more

One of the most fascinating figures in the history of mathematics was Srinivasa Ramanujan, a self-taught Indian genius who formed a remarkable relationship with the Cambridge mathematician GH Hardy. Ramanujan was interested in problems in number theory, which are often easy to state, but incredibly difficult to prove. One amazing thing about Ramanujan's work is that it still finds applications today, in areas you'd never imagine are linked to number theory. An  example is the study of black holes, those gravitational monstrosities that lie at the centres of galaxies. We will explore ..read more

In this episode of Maths on the move we look at some favourite pieces of maths we have worked on so far this year. From a revolutionary new tile to new insights in topology, and from fooling cancer cells to bringing mathematical research into the classroom, we hope there's something interesting there for everyone.  To find out more about the topics mentioned in this episode see the following articles: A tip of the hat: Celebrating an aperiodic monotile — meeting the discoverers of the hat Contagious maths — bringing epidemiological research into the classroom The math ..read more

It's always exciting to have a glimpse at new mathematics and technology as they take shape.  In this podcast we talk to Georg Maierhofer, from the University of Oxford, about an exciting new idea that is only just emerging  – physics informed neural networks  (PINNs for short) – where you add in the laws of physics to machine learning methods.  We have been able to sit in on a number of meetings of our colleagues from Maths4DL (the Mathematics for Deep Learning research group) as they explore this idea.   Georg explains why PINNs are a bit like learning golf ..read more

Last weekend our friends and neighbours at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge put on a great event: the Mathematics Discovery Day, part of the Cambridge Festival. Among the may hands-on activities, games and pop-up explorations were the hugely popular, and well-attended, workshops for students delivered by our colleagues Liz and Charlie from NRICH. Our brilliant colleague Julia Hawkins herded academics and volunteers, juggled props and generally made sure that everything went smoothly. At the same time our partners at the Isaa ..read more

Artificial intelligence has made astonishing progress in the last few years. Perhaps surprisingly, all of the amazing things we've seen, from ChatGPT to generative AI, are powered by same mathematical technique: machine learning, and in particular deep learning. In this episode of Maths on the move we talk to Kweku Abraham, member of Maths4DL, a research project which investigates deep learning, and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge. Kweku explains how machine learning works, why it's so powerful and whether there are any limits to what it can ..read more

We’re now all very aware that climate change is not just a problem for the future – 2023 was officially the hottest year on record ever. And as well as impacting our lives through food security, flooding and drought, climate change can also impact our health by the impact it can have on the spread of diseases. A very interesting group of people came together to discuss this in January 2024. Policy makers, climate scientists, epidemiologists and mathematicians met at a workshop at the University of Oxford to discuss the impact of climate change on epidemics. We spoke to one of the organise ..read more

Could we make the clouds brighter so they reflect more of the Sun's warming rays back into space to keep us cooler? Or make Arctic ice thicker so it lasts longer over the summer? These ideas might sound slightly fantastical, but they're active research areas at the Centre for Climate Repair which has recently become our neighbour here at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge. In this episode of Maths on the move the Centre's Director of Research, Shaun Fitzgerald, tells us more about the Centre's work and its three-fold mission: to reduce ..read more

We continue our series about bringing maths to the stage and screen by going back to 2012 when we were lucky enough to host the UK premiere of the Travelling Salesman, here at the Centre for Mathematical Sciences, our home. It is an unusual movie: despite almost every character being a mathematician there's not a mad person in sight. Moreover, the plot centres on one of the greatest unsolved problems in mathematics, does P = NP? Timothy Lanzone, the writer and director, tells us about creating drama from mathematics, and we discuss the maths behind the movie. (The sound effects ..read more

When you think of Alan Turing you might think of his work breaking the Enigma code in World War II. Or you might think of his work that helped build the foundations of computer science and mathematical logic. Or you might even think of his groundbreaking work in mathematical biology on morphogensis which helps explain animal patterns. One thing we hadn't thought of, until 2013 that is, was that he could be the emotional centerpoint of a musical. The universal machine is a musical about Alan Turing's life and work that was staged in London in 2013. As part of our series abou ..read more