Mathematics

Math For Membranes

Determining the mechanisms that shape biological membranes has long been a tricky business. Like a factory assembly line, eukaryotic cells are organized into membrane-bound, functional compartments called organelles. For instance, the nucleus is the reposi ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 14 2008 - 12:28pm

You're a mean one, Mr. El Naschie

"You really are a vacuum fluctuation / You're as cuddly as a fractal, you're as fuzzy as multi-instanton knots, Mr. El Naschie." Perhaps those would really be the words had Dr. Seuss known about M.S. El Nashchie. A Christmas Eve shout-o ...

Blog Post - Becky Jungbauer - Jul 4 2009 - 12:29pm

Numerical Modeling Solves Your Traffic Jams

There's nothing quite like the frustration of an unexpected traffic jam. Many of us have been the victim of a sudden slowdown on the freeway, which lasts for a few miles before clearing up for no particular reason. Frustration isn't the only bypr ...

Article - Chris Rollins - Jan 17 2009 - 2:18am

Syn City- Crowd Behavior And Violence Tipping Points Get A Numerical Model

Everyday, all over the world, people assemble peacefully into crowds at places such as shopping malls, sporting events, concerts and tourist sites--but crowds can shift from peaceful to unruly, even riotous, in just a few minutes given the right conditions ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 8 2009 - 2:25am

Acoustic Vector Sensor to Improve Underwater Communication

  Today's underwater acoustic communication relies on scalar sensors to measure the pressure of the acoustic field. However, "a vector sensor is capable of measuring important non-scalar components of the acoustic field such as the particle velo ...

Blog Post - Hatice Cullingford - Jan 9 2009 - 10:45pm

Eating Cereal Affects Baby Gender Study Refuted

Last year a  study by Mathews, Johnson and Neil (2008) in their article "You are What your Mother Eats" that was published in the April 22, 2008 P roceedings of the Royal Society B implied that children of women who eat breakfast cereal are more ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 14 2009 - 10:02am

Romance Really Is A Game- And Game Theory Will Give You Some Answers

Scientists say they have developed a mathematical model of the mating game to help explain why courtship is often protracted.   That's right, there may one day be a numerical model to tell you why women under 30 like the Bad Boys but over age 30 they ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 16 2009 - 11:12am

Game Theory Solves CLUE And Maybe Improves Robot Mine Sweepers Too

A newly developed mathematical model that figures out the best strategy to win the popular board game CLUE© could some day help robot mine sweepers navigate strange surroundings to find hidden explosives. At the simplest level, both activities are governed ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 27 2009 - 12:08pm

Tax Cuts Versus Goverment Spending- What Improves The Economy Most?

It would seem that in a bad economy, tax cuts make the most sense.    Letting people keep their money instead of letting the government spend money to collect taxes, spend money to institute government programs and then pay government employees to write ch ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 31 2009 - 10:56pm

A Mathematical Take On Natural Selection

The origin of species may be almost as random as a throw of the dice, says Iosif Pinelis, a professor of mathematical sciences at Michigan Technological University, who claims to have worked out a mathematical solution to a biological puzzle: Why is the ty ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 31 2009 - 11:17pm