Mathematics

Very different complex networks, like global air traffic and neural networks, share very similar 'backbones', say a group of mathematicians, and by stripping each network down to their essential nodes and links, they found each network possesses a skeleton which shares common features, much like vertebrates do. Mammals have evolved to look very different despite a common underlying structure and now it appears real-world complex networks have common descent in a similar way. The researchers studied a variety of biological, technological and social networks and found that all these networks…

You've read a lot about 'invisibility' over the last few years.  Mathematicians and scientists have been working on various devices that enable invisibility cloaks which shield small objects from detection by microwaves or sound waves. An international team has devised an amplifier that can boost light, sound or other waves while hiding them inside an invisible container. As a first application, the researchers propose manipulating matter waves, which are the mathematical description of particles in quantum mechanics. The researchers envision building a quantum microscope that could…

When storage is cheap, finding data has value. A $600 hard drive can store all of the world's music so how do you find a song you like? Math can answer those mysteries, says Kaggle president and chief scientist Jeremy Howard, and in a world of information overload, people who understand making sense of data madness will be paid like rock stars - or athletes. So they are starting now. The San Francisco startup wants to create a sport for intelligent people.  With the whole world of data at your hands, who can find the best answer will become the stuff of pop culture fame - kind of like a…

Countries with a higher per capita gross domestic product (GDP) are more likely to have searches for information about the future than information about the past, according to an analysis of Google search queries in Scientific Reports. Is there a link between online behavior and real-world economic indicators?  Maybe. A group examined Google search queries made by Internet users in 45 different countries in 2010, to calculate the ratio of the volume of searches for the coming year ('2011') to the volume of searches for the previous year ('2009'), which they call the 'future…

One of the disappointments experienced by most mathematics students is that they never get a course in mathematics. They get courses in calculus, algebra, topology, and so on, but the division of labor in teaching seems to prevent these different topics from being combined into a whole. In fact, some of the most important and natural questions are stifled because they fall on the wrong side of topic boundary lines. Algebraists do not discuss the fundamental theorem of algebra because “that’s analysis” and analysts do not discuss Riemann surfaces because “that’s topology,” for example. Thus…

For my book Brain Trust, I chatted with Ian Stewart, mathematician, prolific puzzle author and very fun person to shoot the mathematical breeze with, who explains the following best card trick I’ve ever seen, invented by mathemagician Art Benjamin of Harvey Mudd College. First, Stewart says, prepare a stack of sixteen cards so that cards 1, 6, 11, and 16 are the four aces. Now deal them facedown in four rows of four. Turn up cards 3, 8, 9, and 14 to make the arrangement shown here. OK, you’re done with the setup and ready to start the trick proper. Ask your dupe to imagine the grid as a…

So goes popular opinion: the lottery’s an egregious societal evil implemented and overseen by shape-shifting, blood-drinking reptilian aliens. And that may be largely true – designed to slowly and quietly bleed dry your pockets – that is, unless you learn to drive it. Assuming drawings actually are random, all the science in the world can’t help you pick the winning numbers. But some fiendishly simple stats can make the dollar you put down likely to win back that dollar and more. For my book, Brain Trust, I interviewed Emory Mathematician, Skip Garibaldi (yes, the guy who disproved Garrett…

Lately, my wife and I have been staring slack-jawed at elementary school options, little ropes of drool hanging zombie-like from the corners of our mouths  – and so we’ve decided to cede our choice to the numbers. But when you peel back the data, things like high test scores mean next to nothing about school quality – isn’t it likely that socioeconomics and not the school itself created these high test scores? My wife and I want education causation and not just correlation – a school that creates more education than should be predicted by our (reasonable) genetics and (low) income.…

The human brain is very good — quite excellent, really — at finding patterns. We delight in puzzles that involve pattern recognition... consider word-search puzzles, the “Where’s Waldo” stuff, and the game Set. We’re also great at giving patterns amusing interpretations, as we do when we fancy that clouds look like ducks or castles — or when we claim to see images of Jesus in Irish hillsides, pieces of wood, paper towels, and store receipts. Remember the cheese sandwich with the Virgin Mary on it, which sold on eBay for $28,000 in 2004? Miraculous, indeed. It’s with the knowledge that we find…

Is there still a gender gap in math?  There is if you are selling cultural drama but in actuality, not so much.  Complaints aside, the No Child Left Behind program accomplished its mission; by focusing on the same sort of educational system other countries use that allowed them to beat American kids in standardized tests - namely, teaching to the test - American children performed better in each international test and for the first time in history boys and girls achieved math parity.  That's a win. But perceptions die hard - some people still insist Republicans are more anti-…