The Secrets of Mathematics

Dec 13 2017 24 ep. 54 mins 3.3k
The Secrets of Mathematics Podcast artwork

A series of talks and lectures from Oxford Mathematicians exploring the power and beauty of their subject. These talks would appeal to anyone interested in mathematics and its ever-growing range of applications from medicine to economics and beyond.

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Autism and Minds Wired for Science

Oct 31 2016 62 mins  
Simon Baron-Cohen, Professor of Developmental Psychopathology, Cambridge, and Director of the Autism Research Centre, gives the 2016 Charles Simonyi Lecture on new research into autism.

Fashion, Faith, and Fantasy in the New Physics of the Universe - Roger Penrose

Oct 19 2016 61 mins  
What can fashionable ideas, blind faith, or pure fantasy have to do with the scientific quest to understand the universe? Surely, scientists are immune to trends, dogmatic beliefs, or flights of fancy? In this lecture, based on his new book, Roger will argue that fashion, faith, and fantasy, while sometimes productive and even essential, may be leading today's researchers astray, m

Can Yule Solve My Problems? - Alex Bellos

Dec 13 2017 48 mins  
In our Oxford Mathematics Christmas Lecture Alex Bellos challenges you with some festive brainteasers as he tells the story of mathematical puzzles from the middle ages to modern day. Alex is the Guardian’s puzzle blogger as well as the author of several works of popular maths, including Puzzle Ninja, Can You Solve My Problems? and Alex’s Adventures in Numberland.

As he retires from the the Savilian Chair of Geometry, Oxford Mathematician Nigel Hitchin reflects

Oct 19 2016 67 mins  
From early mathematical inspiration at school in Duffield, Derbyshire, Nigel recalls his often unplanned progress via Jesus College, Oxford, Princeton, Cambridge and Warwick, before his final return to Oxford. Along the way such luminaries as Michael Atiyah and Simon Donaldson play their part as Nigel talks about time spent with physicists in Cambridge, the Eureka moments when the

Roger Heath-Brown a Life in Mathematics

Sep 17 2016 37 mins  
Roger Heath-Brown is one of Oxford's foremost mathematicians. In this interview with fellow Oxford Mathematician Ben Green, Roger reflects on his influences, his achievements and the pleasures that the subject of mathematics has given him. Roger Heath-Brown's work in analytic number theory has been critical to the advances in the subject over the past thirty years and garnered Rog

Modelling genes: the backwards and forwards of mathematical population genetics - Alison Etheridge

Jul 06 2016 53 mins  
In this lecture Professor Alison Etheridge explores some of the simple mathematical caricatures that underpin our understanding of modern genetic data. How can we explain the patterns of genetic variation in the world around us? The genetic composition of a population can be changed by natural selection, mutation, mating, and other genetic, ecological and evolutionary mechanisms. H

The Prime Number Theorem

Jun 15 2016 38 mins  
Oxford Students discuss the Prime Number Theorem. Prime numbers have fascinated mathematicians since there were mathematicians to be fascinated, and The Prime Number Theorem is one of the crowning achievements of 19th century mathematics. The theorem answers, in a precise form, a very basic and naive-sounding question: how many prime numbers are there? Proved in 1896, the theorem m

What We Cannot Know - Marcus du Sautoy

May 16 2016 55 mins  
Science is giving us unprecedented insight into the big questions that have challenged humanity. Where did we come from? What is the ultimate destiny of the universe? What are the building blocks of the physical world? What is consciousness? 'What We Cannot Know' asks us to rein in this unbridled enthusiasm for the power of science. Are there limits to what we can discover about o

The Travelling Santa Problem and Other Seasonal Challenges - Marcus du Sautoy

Dec 18 2015 57 mins  
The Oxford Mathematics Christmas Public Lecture 2015 examined an aspect of Christmas not often considered: the mathematics. Delivered by Marcus du Sautoy, Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science. The Oxford Mathematics Christmas Lecture is generously sponsored by G-Research - Researching investment ideas to predict financial markets. Creative Commons Attribution-N

Symmetry, Spaces and Undecidability - Martin Bridson

Dec 07 2015 61 mins  
The understanding of the possible geometries in dimension 3 is one of the triumphs of 20th century mathematics. In this talk Martin Bridson explains why such an understanding is impossible in higher dimensions. When one wants to describe the symmetries of any object or system, in mathematics or everyday life, the right language to use is group theory. How might one go about underst