Issue 47 of Plus is our biggest issue ever and a mathematical showcase! Not
only are we bringing you the best young writing talent with the winners of
the Plus new writers award 2008, but we are overloaded with features about
the ways maths influences and shapes our lives. We explore the overlap
between the arts and maths, learn about the maths of tomography, catch some
primes, and find out why mathematicians in the movies are always mad. We
also investigate the nature of infinity and the maths of surprises, and
challenge 118118 with some mathematics. There are also all our usual puzzles
and teacher packages.

And if you want to give you eyes a break, tune your ears into our podcast,
with 3 new episodes out today.

In this issue...

* The Plus new writers award 2008
http://plus.maths.org/issue47/winners.html

The 2008 Plus new writers award has been run and won. This year's
competition saw an exceptional standard of writing. The winning entries
include biographies of two of the greatest mathematicians of the last 100
years, as well as articles on the mathematics of Google, ants that do maths,
why we should (or should not) woo brunettes, the dangers of probing the
infinite, and joining the mathematical mile-high club...


Also in this issue...

* Understanding uncertainty: The maths of surprises
http://plus.maths.org/issue47/risk/index.html

You meet an old friend on holiday, you find your colleague shares your
birthday, you win the lottery. Exactly how rare are these rare events? David
Spiegelhalter investigates in his regular column on uncertainty and risk.

* Saving lives: the mathematics of tomography
http://plus.maths.org/issue47/features/budd/index.html

Not so long ago, if you had a medical complaint, doctors had to open you up
to see what it was. These days they have a range of sophisticated imaging
techniques at their disposal, saving you the risk and pain of an operation.
Chris Budd and Cathryn Mitchell look at the maths that isn't only
responsible for these medical techniques, but also for much of the digital
revolution.

* Cantor and Cohen: Infinite investigators part I
http://plus.maths.org/issue47/features/elwes1/index.html

What's the nature of infinity? Are all infinities the same? And what happens
if you've got infinitely many infinities? In this article Richard Elwes
explores how these questions brought triumph to one man and ruin to another,
ventures to the limits of mathematics and finds that, with infinity, you're
spoilt for choice.

* Cantor and Cohen: Infinite investigators part II
http://plus.maths.org/issue47/features/elwes2/index.html

Richard Elwes continues his investigation into Cantor and Cohen's work. He
investigates the continuum hypothesis, the question that caused Cantor so
much grief.

* Maths, madness and movies
http://plus.maths.org/issue47/features/mulcare/index.html

In the movies mathematicians are mostly mad. Since here at Plus we firmly
believe in our sanity, we're puzzled as to why. So we charged Charlotte
Mulcare with the unenviable task of sifting through five well-known maths
movies and speculate towards an answer.

* Catching primes
http://plus.maths.org/issue47/features/kirk/index.html

The primes are the building blocks of our number system, but there's no
general formula that will give you all of them. If you want them, you have
to hunt them down one by one. Abigail Kirk investigates a method that does
just that.

* Career interview: Exhibition curator
http://plus.maths.org/issue47/interview/index.html

Exhibition design is not a career that the mathematically inclined tend to
think about, let alone pursue. Barry Phipps is the first interdisciplinary
fellow with the Kettle's Yard gallery in Cambridge. His remit is to develop
projects of an interdisciplinary nature < "to find the common ground between
things." Whilst most people think that art and science are two completely
separate non-overlapping areas of human endeavour, Phipps does not see it
this way.

* Teacher package: Vectors and matrices
http://plus.maths.org/issue47/package/index.html

This issue's teacher package brings together all Plus articles on vectors
and matrices, exploring anything from the maths of computer movies to
climate change. It also has some handy links to related problems on our
sister site NRICH.


But wait, there's more!

* Tile a bathroom with Perpendicula, the princess of the rectangle
http://plus.maths.org/issue47/puzzle/index.html

* Learn about Venn diagrams, the plaything of managers everywhere
http://plus.maths.org/issue47/outerspace/index.html

* And we challenge 118118 with some mathematics, and respond to recent
comments regarding maths education
http://plus.maths.org/issue47/editorial/index.html


But we're not done yet!

We are releasing 3 new podcast episodes in conjunction with the stories in
this issue.
http://plus.maths.org/podcasts/

* Podcast 11, June 2008: Catching waves
The magical Fourier transform
http://plus.maths.org/podcasts/PlusPodcastJune08_2.mp3

* Podcast 10, June 2008: Maths in the Movies
The maths film festival at the Edinburgh science festival
http://plus.maths.org/podcasts/PlusPodcastJune08.mp3

* Plus Careers Podcast 2, June 2008: Exhibition Curator
Exhibition design is not a career that the mathematically inclined tend to
think about, let alone pursue.
http://plus.maths.org/podcasts/PlusCareersPodcastJune08.mp3


Plus all the latest mathematical news and reviews.

Happy reading from the Plus team


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Marc West
Plus Magazine 
http://plus.maths.org
Millennium Mathematics Project, Centre for Mathematical Sciences
University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA
Phone: +44 (0) 1223764268
email: [log in to unmask]