Mathematics is essential for understanding almost every area of modern life. From finance and medical science to digital communications and weather forecasting, we provide insight into mathematical applications crucial to social, industrial and technological development.
It's a fact: collaboration inspires scientific thinking. Partnerships across scientific disciplines open up new ways of seeing things, encouraging researchers to look afresh at research areas using novel tools and techniques.
Models and Mathematics in Life and Social Sciences (MILES) encourages a productive collision of ideas. Imagine: mathematicians working hand-in-hand with psychologists, or mechanical engineers investigating issues typically considered the preserve of the arts. A three-year EPSRC-funded project, MILES brings together academics from diverse backgrounds, giving them the freedom to pursue new research opportunities that emerge through inspiring interdisciplinary discussion.
From studies looking at how ballet can help us to age better to workshops exploring the interaction of human gestures and computer language: MILES is guiding future research through an ongoing series of participation-building events and activities.
Want to know what the weather’s going to be like tomorrow? Short of looking to the skies and giving it your best guess, one option might be to watch the latest weather forecast.
Thankfully, Professor Ian Roulstone and researchers in the Department of Mathematics are working on data assimilation models that will help to substantially improve the accuracy of our notoriously nebulous weather predictions.
Combining measurements from a whole range of sources – from satellites and weather radar systems, to more traditional barometers and rain gauges – the team are using new mathematical techniques to hone our weather and climate prediction models.
These mathmatical techniques are currently being used to assist the National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) as it tries to understand how our weather and climate might change in the future – a task that requires a better understanding of our weather in the here and now.
Human survival depends on being able to adapt to our environment. And that means having a ‘phenotype’ – a set of characteristics or traits – that will help us deal with the circumstances in which we find ourselves.
But how are our traits affected by our mothers? What effect do non-genetic factors play? And to what extent does it depend on changes in our environment? These are all questions being asked by Professor Rebecca Hoyle and her colleagues in the Department of Mathematics.
Using mathematical modelling to help understand data collected by biologists, the researchers have come to the conclusion that, when our environments are changing, we find it advantageous to copy our mum’s phenotype. More surprising is the finding that in times of stability it’s more beneficial to be average than to be like our mums.
It seems that the best influence a mother can have depends on how the world is changing.
The quest to unify all the forces of nature within a single theory has occupied everyone from ancient philosophers and 19th-century theoretical physicists, to today’s modern physicists.
Developing such a theory is even more challenging when you attempt to include gravitational force. Yet string theory, which assumes that particles are like the harmonics of small vibrating strings, is the most promising attempt to pull together a unified theory to date.
The interplay between string theory and mathematics is a fruitful one. Sophisticated mathematical techniques have made it possible to tackle some of the most difficult questions in string theory. The theory has also led to striking advances in mathematics.
Professor Konstadinos Sfetsos and researchers in the Field, Strings and Geometry Group in the Department of Mathematics are developing new mathematical methods that will help us unravel some of string theory’s biggest mysteries. They are using the theory to improve our understanding of a whole range of areas, including algebra, geometry, topology, gravity, gauge theory, strongly coupled non-linear systems and fluid mechanics.
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