The Aperiodical

Leaves are falling, a chilly wind is blowing and I can hear the distant thunder of undergrads’ hooves as they stampede towards my department. Yes, Summer is giving way to Autumn, so it’s time for another Aperiodcast. If you had “42 days” in the “when will the next Aperiodcast appear” sweepstake, report to the comments section below for your prize. In this episode Peter and Christian were enjoying the comforts of their respective homes, while Katie was preparing to be sawn in half by a crazed Matt Parker at the British Science Festival. We talked about: Bill Thurston has died A glider on an aperiodic cellular automaton exists! (and the alternative  glider Tim Hutton posted on Google+) Knitty spiked icosahedron Puzzlebomb – September 2012 Matt Parker needs help building a domino computer As always, we’re keen to hear about your mathematical exploits at root@aperiodical.com, and you still have eight days to submit items for the 90th Carnival of Mathematics, which you can do through our form.

Here’s the fifth Aperiodcast, covering what’s happened on the site basically since the start of Summer. Peter is busy doing work, so it was just Katie and me blathering on about a variety of things. The posts discussed in this episode were: Telegraph’s open letter to Michael Gove and Vince Cable on numeracy (presented with arithmetic errors), by Peter More and Less, by Paul Taylor Interesting Esoterica Summation volume 4, by Christian Turing Round Up Open Access Round Up MathsJam Annual Conference 2012 booking now open An answer to what Shouryya Ray’s ‘unsolved Newton problem’ was π vs τ: FOTSN/Tau Day special by Steve Mould and Matt Parker Carnival of Mathematics 88 Dance Your PhD: Cutting Sequences on the Double Pentagon by Katie You have three days to submit posts for the next Carnival of Maths, hosted here by Katie.

Here’s another Aperiodcast, covering things that happened on the site between the 4th and the 20th of June. Posts discussed in this episode Ask a mathematician: “Where should we live?” by Alistair Bird The mathematics examinations faced by school leavers in the Republic of Ireland by Colm Mulcahy P-Value Extravaganza posted by Christian The Super Subtraction Feat by Colin Beveridge Take part! Writing for The Aperiodical Send in good new research Submit an article to the Carnival of Maths

After an unexpectedly long wait of over three weeks, here’s the third Aperiodcast, discussing what’s happened on the site between 13/5/2012 and 3/6/2012. You’ll notice that we recorded this podcast four days ago – we were all having too much jubilee fun to find time to upload it! Anyway, we had lots to talk about, so please do have a listen. Posts discussed in this episode: Has schoolboy genius solved problems that baffled mathematicians for centuries? by Christian and Peter The Table Never Lies by Mr. Gregg Puzzlebomb – June 2012 by Katie In what flipping dimension is a square peg in a round hole just as good as a round peg in a square hole? by Card Colm The strange case of Misha Verbitsky and the trademarked beard by Christian P-p-p-publicise a paper! by Christian and Nathan Aperiodical Round Up 6 – It glides to a stop as it reaches the end of the power stroke by Christian Open Access Update – 25th of May by Christian  

In true Aperiodical fashion, we left 13 days before recording another Aperiodcast, so here’s what we think about the last almost-two-weeks on the site. We talked about: “Futurama theorem” slightly improved The number line is not an intuitive concept Grow Your Own Food Puzzlebomb – May 2012 Carnival of Mathematics 86 Charlotte Hillebrand’s post with some nice comments about our endeavours. Subscribe to get future episodes of the Aperiodcast through RSS  or iTunes .

Here’s the very first edition of what we’ve cleverly decided to call The Aperiodcast. The plan is to record a short podcast every week or week-and-a-bit (this is the Aperiodical after all) talking about what’s been happening on the site, and pointing out posts that we found particularly interesting or have generated a lot of discussion. Subscribe to get future episodes of the Aperiodcast through RSS  or iTunes .