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Mathematics - Innovation - 04.06.2024
New open-source platform allows users to evaluate performance of AI-powered chatbots
Researchers have developed a platform for the interactive evaluation of AI-powered chatbots such as ChatGPT. Anyone using an LLM, for any application, should always pay attention to the output and verify it themselves Albert Jiang A team of computer scientists, engineers, mathematicians and cognitive scientists, led by the University of Cambridge, developed an open-source evaluation platform called CheckMate, which allows human users to interact with and evaluate the performance of large language models (LLMs).
Physics - Mathematics - 01.02.2024
Swarming cicadas, stock traders, and the wisdom of the crowd
The springtime emergence of vast swarms of cicadas can be explained by a mathematical model of collective decision-making with similarities to models describing stock market crashes. Pick almost any location in the eastern United States - say, Columbus Ohio. Every 13 or 17 years, as the soil warms in springtime, vast swarms of cicadas emerge from their underground burrows singing their deafening song, take flight and mate, producing offspring for the next cycle.
Mathematics - Health - 08.11.2023
Mathematicians ’thread the needle’ to improve IVF success rates
Mathematicians are using their expertise to improve IVF success rates, according to a new study. A team of researchers have redesigned the needle used in IVF procedures, helping to increase the likelihood of having a baby through this treatment. The study, published in the Journal of Biomechanics, is a culmination of five years research into fertility.
Mathematics - 04.10.2023
Machine learning used to probe the building blocks of shapes
Applying machine learning to find the properties of atomic pieces of geometry shows how AI has the power to accelerate discoveries in maths. Mathematicians from Imperial College London and the University of Nottingham have, for the first time, used machine learning to expand and accelerate work identifying 'atomic shapes' that form the basic pieces of geometry in higher dimensions.
Mathematics - 27.09.2023
Wing-screen wipers: How self-cleaning cicadas could help us have cleaner cars
Self-cleaning cicadas could help design new tech which will make our cars cleaner, scientists say. A type of large insect known as a cicada is able to keep its wings clean of dust and dirt through a remarkable process which could be applied in modern technology. The texture of the cicada wing is unusually repellent to water - known as being "super hydrophobic".
Mathematics - 19.09.2023
Machine learning models can produce reliable results even with limited training data
Researchers have determined how to build reliable machine learning models that can understand complex equations in real-world situations while using far less training data than is normally expected.
Mathematics - Health - 05.04.2023
Want satisfaction? Do the maths
For the first time, a mathematical model for reaching sexual climax has been successfully calculated. 'Don't overthink it' finds the research, which could be used to improve treatment of some conditions. The mathematical model focuses on male arousal, with a formula for female climax to follow. University of Sussex mathematicians have developed the first ever mathematical model of how to reach sexual climax, as revealed in a new paper.
Mathematics - 22.03.2023
New RVC research explains human foot and leg proportions
Novel research from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) examining the human walk has been able to predict leg and foot proportions using collisional geometry. The findings suggest why modern humans have a knee halfway down their legs, short heel and toes, a stiff, longer midfoot, and why a comfortable step is two to three feet long.
Mathematics - 02.02.2023
New maths research to improve disease diagnosis and cybersecurity
A new programme aims to extract useful information from huge, complex datasets. Bath mathematicians will be building models to identify big dataset anomalies. A new UK-wide research programme that aims to extract useful information from huge, complex datasets has been launched. As part of the programme, mathematicians from the University of Bath will be developing tools to identify dataset anomalies that point to serious problems that might otherwise go undetected.
Mathematics - 06.01.2023
Researchers derive an equation to describe how stones skim across water
A new mathematical model that predicts how a tossed stone will skim across the surface of water has potential applications in aircraft design, finds a study involving UCL researchers. The mathematical model, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A , factors together the possible shapes and weights of a stone, the different speeds and directions of a throw and the momentum and pressure of the water as the stone impacts.
Physics - Mathematics - 28.07.2022
Secure cryptography with real-world devices is now a realistic possibility
New research published in Nature explains how an international team of researchers have, for the first time, experimentally implemented a type of quantum cryptography considered to be the 'ultimate', 'bug-proof' means of communication.
Mathematics - 01.12.2021
Machine learning helps mathematicians make new connections
For the first time, mathematicians have partnered with artificial intelligence to suggest and prove new mathematical theorems. The work was done in a collaboration between the University of Oxford, the University of Sydney in Australia and DeepMind, Google's artificial intelligence sister company. While computers have long been used to generate data for mathematicians, the task of identifying interesting patterns has relied mainly on the intuition of the mathematicians themselves.
Mathematics - 24.02.2021
Solving a 100 year-old maths puzzle
For 100 years mathematicians have been trying to solve the question of whether it is possible to fit all four points of a rectangle into any given closed curve shape. Or, more bluntly, can you fit a square peg into a round hole? Research so far had found that it was only possible to fit the proverbial square peg into a round hole if the peg in question was of certain proportions, until now.
Mathematics - Physics - 08.02.2021
’Multiplying’ light could be key to ultra-powerful optical computers
New type of optical computing could solve highly complex problems that are out of reach for even the most powerful supercomputers. An important class of challenging computational problems, with applications in graph theory, neural networks, artificial intelligence and error-correcting codes can be solved by multiplying light signals, according to researchers from the University of Cambridge and Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Russia.
Computer Science - Mathematics - 27.01.2021
A sunny outlook for speedier weather forecasts
Official weather forecasts are being produced faster and more efficiently, thanks to revolutionary technology designed by scientists at the University of Bath. Last updated on Friday 5 February 2021 Official weather forecasts are being produced faster and more efficiently, thanks to revolutionary technology designed by scientists at the University of Bath.
Life Sciences - Mathematics - 13.01.2021
Mathematics explains how giant ’whirlpools’ form in developing egg cells
The swirling currents occur when the rodlike structures that extend inward from the cells' membranes bend in tandem, like stalks of wheat caught in a strong breeze, according to a study from the University of Cambridge and the Flatiron Institute. The mechanism of the swirling instability is disarmingly simple, and the agreement between our calculations and experimental observations supports the idea that this is indeed the process at work in fruit fly egg cells Raymond Goldstein Egg cells are among the largest cells in the animal kingdom.
Physics - Mathematics - 18.12.2020
UofG researchers set out for New Horizons
Researchers from the University of Glasgow's College of Science & Engineering are sharing in new funding for adventurous, high-risk research. Four projects from three Schools have received support from the £25.5m New Horizons fund, administered by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC).
Pedagogy - Mathematics - 27.11.2020
Storybooks could help children’s maths
Tutoring programmes and storybooks can help improve children's attainment in maths, according to a new evidence review led by UCL researchers. The evidence review, published today by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and written by a team from the UCL Institute of Education, the University of Brighton, Loughborough University and Ulster University, synthesises the best international evidence about the teaching and learning mathematics for children in Early Years and Key Stage 1 (between the ages of 3 and 7).
Mathematics - Health - 07.10.2020
Faster COVID-19 testing with simple algebraic equations
A mathematician from Cardiff University has developed a new method for processing large volumes of COVID-19 tests which he believes could lead to significantly more tests being performed at once and results being returned much quicker. Dr Usama Kadri, from the University's School of Mathematics, believes the new technique could allow many more patients to be tested using the same amount of tests tubes and with a lower possibility of false negatives occurring.
Health - Mathematics - 20.08.2020
Working from home is more effective than keeping kids off school in tackling Covid - new study
Closing schools and shielding the over 60s has less of an effect in reducing Covid-19 transmissions and death rates than reducing workplace interactions A 30% reduction in workplace interactions is forecasted to result in a 62% reduction in new infections and a 54% reduction in new deaths by the end of 2020 compared with no additional interventions Enabling employees to work from home is more effective than keeping children off school, or shielding the over 60s in reducing new Covid infections, new deaths and total deaths.