Science
video
Film and visual culture
Stop-motion origami unfurls in a playful exploration of how senses overlap
3 minutes
video
Metaphysics
Why mathematical truths exist with or without minds to consider them
8 minutes
video
Mathematics
How a curious question about colouring maps changed mathematics forever
9 minutes
video
History of science
How an ancient polymath first calculated Earth’s size, as told by Carl Sagan
7 minutes
video
Music
As a pianist strikes a chord, visualisations of his notes appear in real time
5 minutes
video
Logic and probability
Chew over the prisoner’s dilemma and see if you can find the rational path out
6 minutes
essay
Ethics
Moral mathematics
Subjecting the problems of ethics to the cool quantifications of logic and probability can help us to be better people
Elad Uzan
video
Physics
An interstellar voyage explores the ‘paradox’ of twins separated by light years
6 minutes
essay
Mathematics
Imaginary numbers are real
These odd values were long dismissed as bookkeeping. Now physicists are proving that they describe the hidden shape of nature
Karmela Padavic-Callaghan
video
Mathematics
How a verbal paradox shattered the notion of total certainty in mathematics
5 minutes
essay
Computing and artificial intelligence
AI’s first philosopher
Alan Turing was a pioneer of machine learning, whose work continues to shape the crucial question: can machines think?
Sebastian Sunday Grève
essay
Philosophy of science
What is a law of nature?
Laws of nature are impossible to break, and nearly as difficult to define. Just what kind of necessity do they possess?
Marc Lange
video
Logic and probability
The unresolved probability paradox that goes to the heart of scientific objectivity
8 minutes
essay
Economics
A softer economics
Financial markets are entangled and uncertain. When will economists let go of physics envy to embrace the quantum revolution?
David Orrell
video
Information and communication
The modern world is littered with statistical noise. Here’s how to find the signal
5 minutes
video
Mathematics
Check in to the Hilbert Hotel, and learn why some infinities are bigger than others
6 minutes
essay
Mathematics
Mathematics for gamblers
If philosophers and mathematicians struggle with probability, can gamblers really hope to grasp their losing game?
Catalin Barboianu
video
Engineering
Why are NASA engineers borrowing techniques from origami artists?
5 minutes
video
Mathematics
Against ‘beauty’ in science – how striving for elegance stifles progress
9 minutes
video
Chemistry
There was nothing quick about how we arrived at the standardised second
6 minutes
video
Mathematics
Delight as the hard-edged world melts into a full-rainbow spectrum of reality
2 minutes
video
Physics
A millimetre makes a world of difference when calculating planetary trajectories
6 minutes
video
Mathematics
This puzzle is nearly impossible – but working out why is its own brain-teaser
19 minutes
essay
Economic history
Counting China
By rejecting sampling in favour of exhaustive enumeration, communist China’s dream of total information became a nightmare
Arunabh Ghosh