In this newsletter:

- Latest news
- Browse with Plus
- Mathematical moments
- Live maths



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Science in school - a new Europe-wide science journal
http://www.plus.maths.org/latestnews/jan-apr06/scienceschools/index.html

The dangers of cracking  hash - a crisis in cryptography?
http://www.plus.maths.org/latestnews/jan-apr06/hash/index.html

Plus... more news from the world of maths

Gravity kills dark energy?
http://www.plus.maths.org/latestnews/jan-apr05/plusmore35/index.html#gravity

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Browse with Plus

This isn't so much about browsing, but about donating your computing power 
to predict climate change. Climate prediction requires extremely 
sophisticated mathematical models, as well as huge amounts of computing 
power. You can help by taking part in the largest climate prediction 
experiment ever, developed by climate scientists for the BBC using the Met 
Office climate model. Whenever your computer is idle, the project will use 
it to perform essential calculations. To find out more visit 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange/


Paul Falstad's homepage contains lots of applets demonstrating various 
physical and mathematical concepts. You can watch oscillating waves and 
vibrating membranes, see what matrices and vector dot products do, and 
learn about static electric fields, electrodynamics, as well as quantum 
mechanics. Visit the Maths and Physics Applets section of his homepage: 
http://www.falstad.com/mathphysics.html

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Mathematical moments

Nicolaus Copernicus - Born 19th of Febuary 1473 in Torun, Poland
                                   Died 24th of May 1543 in Frombork, 
Poland

Copernicus was the first person to propose a model of the universe with a 
motionless Sun near its centre and the Earth revolving around it. So 
revolutionary was this new idea, that even today we speak of a "Copernican 
shift" when deeply-held beliefs are suddenly overturned. Copernicus 
developed an interest in astronomy, which was then intimately linked to 
astrology, early on in life. His occupation as Canon of Frauenburg (now 
Frombork) Cathedral afforded him enough time and money to pursue this 
interest, and to constantly observe the night skies. In 1514, he circulated 
a handwritten treatise called "Little Commentary", which first set out the 
main ideas of his new world view. He left all the mathematical and physical 
detail for his major work, called "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium", 
the printed version of which, the story has it, he only saw on his 
deathbed.

It seems a little surprising that Copernicus got away with his potentially 
blasphemous theory. This is due to a large extent to a fraudulent act of 
the type setter who worked on De Revolutionibus: Andreas Osiander decided 
not to set Copernicus's original preface, but inserted instead a letter 
written by himself. This letter stated that the contents of the book were 
not meant to represent reality, but simply to give a new and elegant way of 
calculating the movements of the celestial bodies. The real implications of 
Copernicus's model could be conveniently ignored and he died of a natural 
death at the age of 70.

Find out more about Copernicus, his life and work on the MacTutor History 
of Maths site 
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Copernicus.html

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Live maths

York Festival of Science

The ninth York Festival of Science and Technology takes place between the 
9th and the 19th of March 2006. The wide range of events includes a maths 
and learning funfair for all the family, and a star gazing party organised 
by York Astrological Society. To find out more visit 
http://www.sciencecityyork.org.uk/community/events/festivalofscience.html


Searching of Extra Terrestrial Intelligence: A new way of looking

In this free public lecture Dr William Edmondson will ask if we can find 
extraterrestrial life using the world’s largest radio telescope in Puerto 
Rico.

When: 16th of March 2006 at 6:00 pm
Where: Thinktank, the Birmingham Science Museum
Millennium Point
Curzon Street
Birmingham
B4 7XG
Phone: 0121 2022327
Website: http://www.thinktank.ac/education/events.htm


Proof

This film is an adaptation of David Auburn's 2000 Pulitzer Prize-winning 
play about a daughter grieving for her dead mathematician father, coping 
with her domineering sister and struggling with a potential mathematician 
lover. Starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins, the movie does not 
have any actual maths in it, rather maths is a metaphor for the mysterious 
force that drives a genius mind. Proof was released on the 10th of February 
and is in cinemas throughout the UK.


Happy reading from the Plus team!

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