statistics
Robert Hunt worries about the decreasing numbers of mathematics students at UK universities.
Helen is a defence analyst with the MoD, using her maths skills to help defend the nation. Plus finds out about her career path.
Kittens, jaguars, giraffes and bees are just some of the stars in this issue of Plus, where we journey through our own intestines, examine the fashions of the animal world and use mathematics to seek universal truth... or perhaps just make some money.
Did you know that you can't average averages? Or that Paris is rainier than London ... but it rains more in London than in Paris? Andrew Stickland explores the dangers that face the unwary when using a single number to summarise complex data.
Shane Whelan likes a challenge, and his career path has been defined both by what he enjoyed and by a desire to keep learning. Becoming an actuary seemed like the perfect solution.
Collecting chances
Find out about what it is like to work as an actuary with Watson Wyatt Partners Worldwide. There's also salary information and a careers contact point.
"Lies, damned lies, and statistics..." Ben Parker tells us how to tell good statistics from bad, and make sure your cat is well-fed.
Emily Poskett works as a government statistician for the Department for International Development. With lots of travel and the opportunity to make a real difference in poorer countries, her job is far more than just number crunching.
Life is full of coincidences, but how do you work out if something is really as unlikely as it seems? In this article Rob Eastaway and John Haigh find chance in church and work out the odds.
NHS budgets, third world debt, predictions of global warming, inflation, Iraqi war dead, the decline of fish stocks or hedgehogs, the threat of cancer — there's hardly a subject people care about that comes without measurements, forecasts, rankings, statistics, targets, numbers of every variety. Do they illuminate or mislead? Introducing their new book, Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot take a look at numbers in the media and show that a little maths goes a long way in unravelling dodgy media claims.
According to Darwin, natural selection is the driving force of evolution. It's a beautifully simple idea, but given the thousands of years that are involved, nobody has ever seen it in action. So how can we tell whether or not natural selection occurs and which of our traits are a result of it? In this article Charlotte Mulcare uses milk to show how maths and stats can provide genetic answers.
This issue's teacher package brings together all Plus articles on probability and statistics, exploring anything from maths in the dock to games of chance. It also has some handy links to related problems on our sister site NRICH.
Why rankings don't work
Evolution is the main theme of this issue. With Darwin's anniversary year not too far off, we find out how to reconstruct the tree of life and how to spot the fingerprint of natural selection. We report on the rapidly melting Arctic, bound to destroy much of evolution's achievements, and explore the maths used in ice and ocean models. And we have a look at cellular automata, simple mathematical models that can evolve surprisingly complex behaviour. Plus you can learn how to best distribute money amongst your employees without evolving envy.
You might think that if you collected together a list of naturally-occurring numbers, then as many of them would start with a 1 as with any other digit, but you'd be quite wrong. Jon Walthoe explains why Benford's Law says otherwise, and why tax inspectors are taking an interest.
Geraldine Paxton, an electronics engineer, is a member of the Ford Motor Company Limited's graduate trainee scheme. Geraldine tells us about her work there, from driving cars on the German autobahns to ensuring production lines keep working. There's also salary information and a careers contact point.
This year's prize goes to Srinivasa S. R. Varadhan
A new project hopes to reduce the experimental error in science teaching.
A UK government inquiry into maths education has the statistics community worried.
A statistical study into Iraq war deaths sparks controversy
The maths of the Eurovision song contest
Some spurious statistics
With the rugby world cup in full swing, it's time to look at some numbers
