Sandy Black has combined her love of maths and art in a career as a knitwear designer.
(04/02/2010)
Controlled chaos produces realistic behaviour in robotic cockroach
(22/01/2010)
E8 symmetry discovered in lab for the first time
(08/01/2010)
Keeping up with temperature
Plus magazine opens a door to the world of maths, with all its beauty and applications, by providing articles from the top mathematicians and science writers on topics as diverse as art, medicine, cosmology and sport. You can read the latest mathematical news on the site every week, subscribe to our fortnightly email newsletter, read our online magazine published four times a year, and browse our archive containing all past issues and news items.
If you like your maths in unusual contexts, then this is the issue for you! We explore the power of origami to solve ancient (and very modern) problems, find the maths in fashion, and marvel at the complexities of church bell ringing. But it's not all fun and games, as we investigate the controversies surrounding breast screening and the maths behind drug-induced hallucinations, find out how to predict the impact of natural catastrophes, and answer some deep questions about the Universe.
Think drug-induced hallucinations, and the whirly, spirally, tunnel-vision-like patterns of psychedelic imagery immediately spring to mind. But it's not just hallucinogenic drugs that conjure up these geometric structures. People have reported seeing them in near-death experiences, following sensory deprivation, or even just after applying pressure to the eyeballs. So what can these patterns tell us about the structure of our brains?