This page contains a list of some of my writing and speaking, not including my technical publications and talks. You can read what other people have said about me here.

 

Books

• Maths 1001, Quercus, October 2010. “Absolutely everything you need to know about mathematics in 1001 bite-sized explanations.”

• How to Build a Brain and 34 other really interesting uses of mathematics (a.k.a. Mathematics without the boring bits), Quercus, 31 March 2011.

• The Math Handbook, Quercus, to appear in November 2011

My books are managed by The Science Factory.

 

Writing

• Ultimate Logic (a cover feature about set theory and the continuum hypothesis), New Scientist magazine, 30 July 2011.

• Large cardinals: maths shaken by the ‘unprovable’, Daily Telegraph, 9 November 2010

• Something doesn’t add up (a cover feature about arithmetical incompleteness and large cardinals), New Scientist magazine, 16 August 2010.

• Knot or Not? (a feature article about knot theory and categorification), New Scientist magazine, 18 October 2008.

• From e to eternity (a feature article about about e, transcendental numbers, and Schanuel’s Conjecture), New Scientist magazine, 21 July 2007.

• An Enormous Theorem: the classification of finite simple groups (Winner, Plus Magazine New Writers Competition, December 2006)

• Cantor and Cohen: Infinite Investigators, Part 1: the axiom of choice – Plus magazine, June 2008 (Also available in Arabic)

• Cantor and Cohen: Infinite Investigators, Part 2: the continuum hypothesis – Plus magazine, June 2008 (Also available in Arabic)

• Exotic spheres, or why 4-dimensional space is a crazy place – Plus magazine, January 2010
(and in Arabic)

 


Speaking

• In March 2011, along with Ian Stewart and Brian Cox, I was featured in a Maths Special edition of The Guardian’s Science Weekly podcast, hosted by Alok Jha. (MP3 here.)

• In December 2010, I was interviewed by Neil Denny on Little Atoms on Resonance FM. (MP3 here.)

• On 10th November 2010, I was interviewed by Dan Damon on World Update on the BBC World Service, about unprovability and set theory. (MP3 here.)

• In November 2011, I was invited to talk at the West Yorkshire Astronomical Society, on Infinity and the Limits of Mathematics

• In September 2011, I spoke at PhilSoc in Manchester, to an audience of students from three Manchester schools. The slides from my talk “Infinity and the Limits of Mathematics” are available here.

• In April May 2011, I gave a webinar on “Some families of polyhedra” at Mathfuture, hosted by Maria Droujkova. It is now online here.

• In February 2011, I gave a workshop on “Knot Maths” to school-children aged 13-14 as part of the Royal Institution Mathematics Masterclasses in Leeds. (Handout here.)

• With Matt Daws, I have developed a 2 hour workshop on Knot Theory for sixth-formers, which we have given several times to date, including as part of Leeds Festival of Science. Handouts and other details here.

• I have given talks and masterclasses on various aspects of mathematics (including prime numbers, tessellations, infinity, knot theory, waves) at schools around Yorkshire.

• In February 2007, I appeared on Channel 4′s radio show The Tube, discussing Goldbach’s Conjecture with Alex James (of Blur fame) in front of an audience of screaming teenage rock fans.

• October 2007, I gave a talk about e and transcendental numbers at Café Scientifique in Chapel Allerton, Leeds, in front of a less screaming, less teenage audience. See photos here.

• I’ve given several more technical or formal talks, see my Mathematical Talks page.

• See also my commendations page.