In this newsletter:
* Latest news
* Browse with Plus
* Mathematical moments
* Live maths
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Latest news
Plasma, Bird Swarms and the Stock Market
Complexity studies link solar wind with bird behaviour and stock
market performance.
http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/sep-dec07/complex/index.html
Plus Celebrates its 10th birthday
10 years of bringing mathematics to life
http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/may-aug07/party/index.html
Mobius at rest
Mathematicians solve the famous loop's mystery
http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/may-aug07/mobius/index.html
The risk of death for sickle cell disease
A new Bayesian network helps predict the severity of the disease
http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/may-aug07/disease/index.html
Breaking the ice - listen to the first Plus podcast!
http://plus.maths.org/blog/2007/08/listen-to-first-plus-podcasts.html
Plus ... more news from the world of maths in the Plus blog
http://plus.maths.org/blog/
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Browse with Plus
Social networking is all the rage, and we here at Plus are certainly
not immune to it. Facebook (www.facebook.com) is the website of
choice at the moment, and a quick look through its groups shows us
there are plenty of places for scientists and mathematicians to
leave comments and have their say.
Of those groups that appeal to mathematicians, there is the "Anyone
who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human" group - http://
www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2227025919
The "I'm a science nerd and proud" group http://www.facebook.com/
group.php?gid=2352435254 is a personal favourite of mine, allowing
you to interact with other similarly inclined individuals.
Taking a swipe at the youth of the average facebook user, the "When I
was your age, Pluto was a planet" group http://www.facebook.com/
group.php?gid=2207893888 is one of the largest groups on the site,
and allows those interested in the scientific / political debate to
chat to those simply there to show their support to the demoted
planetoid.
The "American Association for the Advancement of Science" http://
www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2379175624 is one serious organisation
using facebook for communication.
And if you are in the London area and interested in communicating
science, join the "Help I need a Scientist" group http://
www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5080638101 and donate your time to
local schools to convince the students to continue with their
scientific studies into university.
And whilst we are on internet fads, there are very amusing
mathematics videos on youtube - for instance Tom Lehrer's "New Math"
video about teaching your children mathematics, sometimes in base-8!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a81YvrV7Vv8
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Mathematical moments
Louis Antoine de Bougainville
Born: 11 Nov 1729 in Paris, France
Died: 31 Aug 1811 in Paris, France
Louis-Antoine de Bougainville was an acclaimed mathematician who
wrote a well-known calculus book. However, he is more widely
remembered for his exploits as an explorer and soldier.
Such were his exploits as an explorer, his name is given to the
largest of the Solomon Islands in Papua New Guinea, to the strait
which divides it from the island of Choiseul, and to the strait
between Mallicollo and Espiritu Santo islands of the New Hebrides
group. In the Falklands, Port Louis and Isla Bougainville
commemorate his name. The South American climbing shrub
Bougainvillea is also named after him.
Whilst these days Bougainville's legacy is courtesy of his life as
an explorer, he showed early promise as a mathematician. After
completing his secondary schooling, in 1752 he wrote Traite du
calcul - integral extending de l'Hopital's book, written more that
half a century earlier, to cover integral calculus and updating the
differential calculus. It was written of him that: "He brought such
clarity and order to the subject, as well as incorporating new work,
that he achieved immediate recognition."
This work led to Bougainville's election to the Royal Society of
London in 1756, when he also published a second volume.
This could have been the start of a promising mathematics career for
Bougainville. However, his life took a different tact when he quit
mathematics and joined the army, whereupon he distinguished himself
in the French and Indian War. As a member of the navy, in 1764 he
sailed from France to the Falkland Islands, where he established a
French colony. In 1766, he was commissioned by the French government
to sail round the world as the French joined other European
countries in colonising lands in the Southern Hemisphere.
By the end of March 1768, Bougainville had discovered the islands in
the archipelago of , now French Polynesia. He also found Tahiti, but
was 8 months behind Englishman Samuel Wallis. He reached modern day
Bougainville reef, just to the east of Australia's Great Barrier
Reef, but somehow missed sighting Australia. He found the Louisiade
Archipelago, an island group of Papua New Guinea, 200 km southeast
of the island of New Guinea, which he named after Louis XV of France.
Continuing his journey north, he discovered two of the Treasury
Islands, sailed past Choiseul island, and the now-named Bougainville
Island.
He made it home in March 1769 as the first Frenchman to sail round
the World. His systematic astronomical observations provided
important navigation charts to later explorers. From 1779 to 1782 he
served as commodore in operations of the French fleet off North
America, supporting the American Revolution, but was later court-
martialled after defeat off Martinique.
During the French Revolution, he escaped the massacres of Paris in
1792 and settled in Normandy. Napoleon made him a senator, a count,
and a member of the Legion of Honour.
Not bad for a mathematician with a penchant for calculus!
More information at:http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/
Biographies/Bougainville.html
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Live maths
The BA Festival of Science 2007
The BA Festival of Science is one of the UK's biggest science
festivals. Annually it attracts around 400 of the best scientists
and science communicators from home and abroad who reveal the
latest developments in research to a general audience.
This year, the festival is being hosted by the University of York
between 9 and 15 September. Learn about the science of chocolate,
watch bungee jumpers in action or hear about the latest scientific
research.
The BA Festival of Science has changed considerably in its 175 year
history. It was first established to provide a forum for scientists
to discuss the latest scientific research and ideas outside the
capital, London. It has an illustrious history with the famous
Huxley-Wilberforce debate in Oxford in 1860 and the coining of the
word 'dinosaur' in 1842. Over the years it has developed into the
largest public access celebration of science in the country, which
anyone can attend.
When: 9-16 September
Where: York University
For more information, see:
http://www.the-ba.net/the-ba/Events/FestivalofScience/index.html
The Tiger That Isn't
Mathematics scares or depresses most of us, but politicians,
journalists and everyone in power use numbers all the time to
bamboozle us. Most maths is really simple - as easy as 2 + 2 in
fact. Better still it can be understood without any jargon, any
formulas - and in fact not even any numbers. Most of it is
commonsense, and by using a few basic principles one can quickly see
when maths, statistics and numbers are being abused to play tricks -
or create policies - which can waste millions of pounds.
Join Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot, the creator and presenter
of Radio 4's "More is Less", for a revealing and entertaining
insight into when numbers are telling the truth or being used to
lie, whether it is health scares, the costs of government policies,
the supposed risks of certain activities or the real burden of taxes.
Chaired by Stephanie Flanders, Economics Editor, BBC Newsnight
Speakers: Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot
When: 6 September, 1pm
Where: RSA, 8 John Adam Street, London, WC2N 6EZ
How much: Free
For details and booking see:
http://www.thersa.org/events/detail.asp?eventID=2351
Liquidity: Finance in motion or evaporation?
House prices stuck? Not enough liquidity. Inflation rising? Too
much liquidity. Whenever global economic trends fail to flow with
the theory, economists and financial observers invoke liquidity, in
the same way that physicists invoke dark matter and dark energy to
explain problems with the origins of the universe. This lecture
explores the various definitions and explanations of liquidity,
concluding with some thoughts on why this watery concept is so
important.
Speaker: Professor Michael Mainelli
When: 5 September 6pm
Where: Gresham College, Barnard's Inn Hall, Holborn, London
How much: Free
More information and bookings:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/event.asp?PageId=45&EventId=640
4000 years of geometry
From the Egyptian pyramids to modern sculpture, geometry has been
at the heart of our culture. Central to this story has been
'Euclidean geometry' which seems to describe the world we live in.
But does it? Can there be other types of geometry?
Speaker: Professor Robin Wilson
When: October 3, 6pm
Where: Gresham College, Barnard's Inn Hall, Holborn, London
How much: Free
More information and bookings:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/event.asp?PageId=45&EventId=618
Second IMA Conference: Mathematics Works
A conference introducing teachers to some of the areas where
mathematics is used in the world of work. This one-day conference
will be of particular interest to teachers of mathematics, in both
schools and colleges, who seek to broaden their knowledge and
understanding of the many exciting and interesting applications of
mathematics. It is open to both members and non-members of the
Institute.
Speakers: John McWhirter FRS - QinetiQ, Peter Grindrod CBE - IMA
President, Chris Budd - University of Bath, Dr G Keith Still - Crowd
Dynamics Ltd, Paul Shephard - University of Bath
When: October 19
Where: The Royal Society, 6 - 9 Carlton House Terrace, London
How much: £50-£80
More information and bookings:
http://www.ima.org.uk/Conferences/mathsworks07.htm
London Mathematical Society Popular Lectures
Hinke Osinga: Chaos and Crochet
Maths predicts things - so why is the weather forecast often wrong?
The intricacies of chaos theory can be explained with a surface that
you can make by crochet.
Stephen Huggett: Knots
The mathematical theory of knots is a weird and wonderful world. It
is easy to enter, but surprisingly difficult to answer some of its
most obvious questions!
When: 18 September 6.30 - 9.00 pm
Where: Vaughan-Jeffreys Lecture Theatre, School of Education,
University of Birmingham
More information and booking:
http://web.mat.bham.ac.uk/S.M.Goodwin/lmspopular/
Happy reading from the Plus team!
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