Mathematical Scales

Thanks to the move to the US, my son has a new piano teacher. He is playing at an advanced level, beyond grade 8 (for the UK audience), with pieces by Bach, Mozart… Continue reading →

Every year most of the world’s greatest artworks are swept up and thrown away

Education and Research

A twitter discussion this morning with Ian Hopkinson (@smallcasserole) Rory Duncan (@HardyDuncan) and Mary Wombat (@little_mavis), led me to try to formulate what I think about the relationship between education and research. There… Continue reading →

Mathematics is vital!

[This is a painful post to write and probably to read, I attempt to soften the blow by including some geometric construction projects I have been working on!] I write this as a… Continue reading →

The Future We Deserve: Solar Photovoltaic Energy Replication

The Future we Deserve is a book project, bringing together thinkers and makers to provide their visions of the future. I have contributed a piece on education, and there are many, many exciting… Continue reading →

Computers beat the devil?

I am a little behind the times on this, but Dave Richeson recently posted a quote from Michael Atiyah: Algebra is the offer made by the devil to the mathematician. The devil says:… Continue reading →

Icosahedral Tiling Model

Following on from the “How do shapes fill space?” exhibit at the RSSE last year, the Science Museum accepted our offer of some of the zometool models. There were three classics, the 120-cell,… Continue reading →

Markets and Mushrooms

I am at a conference in China and a couple of days ago we visited the market in the centre of Guangzhou. I took the chance to take some photos: Some of it… Continue reading →

Lasercutting acrylic dust patterns

Etching acrylic produces a lot of dust: The acrylic does interesting things with this dust creating fascinating patterns. I suspect some sort of electrical charge behaviour. Kudos to the first to work out… Continue reading →

Tiling Typography

I have been playing with spreading text over tilings (for a paid maths art project!). Here are some studies based on some favorite typefaces. Click for higher resolution images. Domino Tiling Penrose Tiling… Continue reading →

Under the Volcano

I have received a couple of beautiful pictures of my sculpture in Iceland with a rather impressive background! If you are in Vestmanneayjar and get some more, I would love them! [Update 14/5/10… Continue reading →

Would an Alternative Vote make a difference?

[Update 10/5/10: For a far less back of the envelope calculation, based on a poll including second intention rather than guesswork, you can look at this study from the Electoral Reform Society. They… Continue reading →