Send in the clowns!

Our next Oxford Mathematics Public Lecture features jesters, free will and the Grandfather Paradox for time travel. Better than a night at the circus.

Thursday 23 May, 5pm. Book: maths.ox.ac.uk/node/67894

The newly created UK-wide Academy for the Mathematical Sciences today appointed Oxford Mathematician Alison Etheridge as its first President.

The Academy's focus will be on mathematical sciences everywhere: in teaching & education, academic research, & business & government.

The Penrose tiling basks mathematically in the Oxford spring sunshine, reflecting against the entrance roof of our building while, above, Atlas and Hercules hold up the world.

A few years ago, a survey suggested that 7 is people's most likely choice of favourite number. Are mathematicians any different?

Episode 1 of 'What's your favourite number'?

We have just put our 100th student lecture on YouTube. But you can watch them all in one minute.

Or, alternatively, in about 80 hours: youtube.com/playlist?list=…

Holography is a powerful tool for understanding the fundamentals of nature. All the information content of a theory of quantum gravity in some volume is equivalent to a theory living at the boundary of the volume without gravity.

Chris Couzens explains:
maths.ox.ac.uk/node/66641

What do an ice cream in the UK, Jay-Z, cricketer Don Bradman & Oxford Mathematician Melanie Rupflin have in common?

Meanwhile here's one of Melanie's 3rd year Functional Analysis lectures, the latest we're making public. We're one short of our century...

youtube.com/watch?v=kXQwIJ…

Mathematicians don't retire. How can they? They can't just stop thinking about mathematics, especially as there is so much they don't know. The light is still in their eyes, as Roger Heath-Brown visibly demonstrates in our latest 'Show Me the Maths' film.

What do maypole dancing, grocery delivery, & the quadratic formula all have in common? The answer is, obviously, braids!

Tara will explore how the ancient art of weaving strands appears both within maths & the wider world.

25/4, 5pm, Oxford.

Book: maths.ox.ac.uk/node/67502

We're used to tennis players hitting balls into crowds at the end of games & golfers shanking shots, but maths lecturers?

Dominic is putting a spin on things in this clip from a second 'Fluid Dynamics & Waves' student lecture we're showing.

Full lecture:
youtube.com/watch?v=KJRvHK…

Mathematics and mathematicians are not immune to the culture and politics of their times as Oxford Mathematician Petra explains in our latest 'Show Me the Maths' film.

Before you think this film has no relevance to the 'real' world, bear in mind that Lasse's field of Number Theory is responsible for the security in the device on which you are watching it. So maybe in a few years' time...

'Show Me the Maths': films emphatically about the maths.

Sometimes a whiteboard isn't enough. Sometimes you need an airzooka.

In this Fluid Dynamics & Waves 2nd year lecture, Dominic Vella shows how parcels of fluid can move relative to others. No students were harmed in the making of this film.

Full lecture: youtu.be/s1mf6VfLAkM

How do you like your boards? Black with chalk or white with pen?

We took a Swiftie boardwalk round Oxford Mathematics.

How to convey the concept behind complex mathematical research? It's tough. James Timmins researches noncommutative algebras where the order you do things really matters. As in whether you put on your socks before your shoes or vice-versa.

Case study: maths.ox.ac.uk/node/67250

You know how it is, you study one topic in maths (or other subjects for that matter) and then move on to something completely different and unconnected.

But then later...

You can watch Philip Maini's full student lecture on Fourier Series.

youtube.com/watch?v=Uwzl3N…

An article in @Time a few years back listed all the experts who would be needed to win the battle against cancer. But there was one omission.

Watch Trachette Jackson's Oxford Mathematics Public Lecture, online Thursday 21 March, 5-6pm and any time after.

youtube.com/watch?v=PH2BOo…

Here's a top tip for aspiring mathematicians from Oxford Mathematician Philip Maini.

Be lazy.

More advice (and maths) from Philip in his 1st year student lecture on Fourier Series, the latest we are making available.

youtube.com/watch?v=Uwzl3N…

We have 16 research groups in Oxford Mathematics and the Mathematical Biology group is one of the biggest with nearly 50 members, reflecting the growing importance of modelling in biology and medicine.

Kit Gallagher explains his work in our latest 'Show Me the Maths' film.

Putting our student lectures online has led to much debate about the best way to lecture. This is just one way.

The start of lecture 4 of 4 we are showing from Sarah Waters' 'Multivariable Calculus' 1st year course.

Full lecture:
youtube.com/watch?v=8UgL2f…