Podcast: Episode 50 - Sebastien Guenneau, Invisibility cloaks

These are the show notes for episode 50 of the Travels in a Mathematical World Podcast. 50 is one half of the square of the base of our number system, a fact which seems to give it an arbitrary significance.

So as this is the special half-century episode of the podcast I have a treat which I have been saving for just such an occasion. On a trip to Liverpool earlier in the year I sat down with Dr. Sebastien Guenneau of the University of Liverpool who told me about his work on invisibility cloaks. You can find out a lot more about Sebastien's work in metamaterials on his website or by reading the New Scientist article "Invisibility cloak could hide buildings from quakes" and the Physics World article "Invisibility cloak for water waves".

You can find out more about my work with the IMA by following me on Twitter, reading this blog and visiting http://www.ima.org.uk/student/. Join the Facebook page.

Podcast: Episode 49 - History of Maths and x, Substitution ciphers: Ancient - Renaissance

These are the show notes for episode 49 of the Travels in a Mathematical World Podcast. 49 is the number of strings on a harp. More about 49 from Number Gossip.

In the week in which this episode is released I am giving the first in hopefully a series of lectures entitled "History of Maths and x", for various x. I am no expert on these topics but they interest me and I would like to explain a little of them to you. This time the x is cryptography and the lecture covers "Substitution ciphers: Ancient - Renaissance". Lectures take place at the University of Nottingham. The lecture was videoed for the web and can be downloaded at History of Maths and x. Lectures are to be accompanied by an article in iSquared Magazine and a companion episode of this podcast containing additional information not in the talk or article.

You can view the talk and find out more through www.historyofmathsandx.co.uk.

You can find out more about my work with the IMA by following me on Twitter, reading this blog and visiting http://www.ima.org.uk/student/. Join the Facebook page.