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In this newsletter: * Latest news * Mathematical moments * Browse with Plus * Live maths * The Plus New Writers Competition ********** Latest news * Doing the time warp Einstein proved correct, ..... again! http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/sep-dec07/einstein/index.html * $25,000 Controversy Debate surrounds $25,000 prize won by undergraduate for solving universal Turing machine problem http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/sep-dec07/turing/index.html Plus ... more news from the world of maths in the Plus blog, including the costs of poor maths skills, Lotto confusion and the next Beautiful Young Minds. http://plus.maths.org/blog/ Plus ... more maths for your ears. You can find all our podcasts at: http://plus.maths.org/podcasts/index.html Subscribe from this site, or look up Plus in iTunes. ********** Mathematical moments Edwin Powell Hubble Born: 20 Nov 1889 in Marshfield, Missouri, USA Died: 28 Sept 1953 in San Marino, California, USA Edwin Hubble was born in Missouri in 1889. In his youth, Hubble was more of a sportsman than mathematician, holding the Illinois State high jump record and playing for the University of Chicago basketball team. He won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford where he studied law. He rose to the rank of major in World War I, and following the war, he returned to the US and studied at the Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago. He earned a PhD in 1917 with a dissertation entitled "Photographic Investigations of Faint Nebulae". Hubble's work had major influences in the fields of astronomy and mathematics. Throughout the 1920s, Hubble played a key role in establishing the content of galaxies. It was known that some spiral nebulae contained individual stars, but there was no consensus as to whether these were relatively small collections of stars within our own galaxy, or whether these could be separate galaxies. In 1924 Hubble measured the distance to the Andromeda nebula and showed it was about a hundred thousand times as far away as the nearest stars. It had to be a separate galaxy. Hubble realised that he could use the apparent brightness of stars as an indication of their distance from Earth. The speed with which a galaxy was moving towards or away from the Earth was relatively easy to measure due to the Doppler shift. In 1929, Hubble however deciphered that this red shift was proportional to the distance. His work proved that galaxies are receding from us, and one another. This led to the idea that the Universe is expanding, and then to the concept of the Big Bang and modern cosmology. Hubble discovered the asteroid 1373 Cincinnati on August 30, 1935. Today, the Hubble Space Telescope bears his name in his honour. ********** Browse with Plus * Mobius Transformations Revealed on YouTube Ever tried to visualise Mobius transformations? A new video, "Mobius Transformations Revealed," attempts to break down the barriers to the mathematical tools and has, at my last count, over 500,000 hits! That's Plus territory! In this video, Douglas N. Arnold and Jonathan Rogness of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis transform a multicolored square into new shapes using Mobius transformations. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX3VmDgiFnY * The Calculus of Saying 'I Love You' Why you should never date man who knows more maths than you http://www.inklingmagazine.com/articles/the-calculus-of-saying-i-love-you?page=1 * Plus / Nature Mathematics Group Plus has teamed up with science journal giant Nature to bring maths to the Nature networking site. "Nature Networks" was set up to provide a global stage for science discussion, allowing scientists to meet, interact and comment on the latest news, debate current topics or exchange information. The mathematics forum is brought to you by Plus. We're aiming to provide a platform for anyone who wants to discuss maths, whether it's actual maths, maths teaching, the portrayal of maths in the media, or good and bad maths content elsewhere on the internet. The address is: http://network.nature.com/group/mathematics Topics have that have started to be discussed include one to introduce yourself and one to discuss mathematics and the media. Feel free to start up new topics and ask questions on mathematical topics, participate in these current debates or answer the questions of others. ********** Live maths * Modelling Conflict Computational science has already had an immense impact on the life sciences. The presenters assess its effectiveness on social and political modelling and, in particular, in thwarting terrorism. Who: Professor Timothy Hackworth and Philip Treleaven When: 5:00pm - 7.00 pm Thursday 6th December 2007 Where: Lighthill Institute of Mathematical Sciences, 57-58 De Morgan House, Russell Square, London WC1B 4HS How much: Free RSVP: [log in to unmask] More info: www.ucl.ac.uk/lims * 50 years of the Lovell telescope A topical lecture about an icon of British science and technology as it passes its 50th anniversary. It will also give an introduction to the art of radio astronomy and how it enables us to observe parts of the universe that optical telescopes cannot reach. Who: Professor Ian Morison When: 1pm Wednesday 5th November 2007 Venue: Staple Inn Hall, High Holborn, London, WC1V 7QJ How much: Free ********** The Plus New Writers Competition Every year at Plus we hold our maths essay competition, the "Plus new writers" award. We want to find people who can bring mathematics to life. The competition is open to new writers of any age and from any background who can explain a mathematical topic or application they think the world needs to know about. The winning entries will be read by an international audience of over two hundred thousand in the June 2008 issue of Plus, and the winners will receive an ipod and signed copies of popular maths books by some of the best science writers today. The closing date is March 31st 2008. The competition is kindly supported by the Maths, Stats and Operational Research Network, a Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy, and the London Mathematical Society. The competition will be judged by three prominent mathematicians and science writers. There are three categories: secondary school and sixth form students, university students (both undergraduate and postgraduate) and the general public. If you think you can share your passion for maths with the general public, download your entry pack today and get writing! For more information and the entry pack, go to: http://plus.maths.org/competition/ ********** Happy reading from the Plus team! ********** If you received this message you have subscribed yourself to the PLUS-ANNOUNCE mailing list via our website. If you do not wish to remain on the list please visit: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa.exe?SUBED1=plus-announce&A=1 and follow the instructions to leave the list. If you have any comments on this newsletter, or Plus Magazine, please contact us at [log in to unmask] - we are always happy to hear from our readers! Feel free to forward this email to anyone you think might be interested. -------------- 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]