Quasicrystals: The Strange Order That Changed Crystallography

Quasicrystals: The Strange Order That Changed Crystallography

Today, we’re explor­ing qua­sicrys­tals, what they are, how an “impos­si­ble” pat­tern was found in a lab, how it became the cat­a­lyst to rewrit­ing text­books, and why this exot­ic order mat­ters for real‑world tech­nolo­gies from wear‑resistant coat­ings to pho­ton­ics. I’m Gabrielle Bir­chak, and this is Math! Sci­ence! His­to­ry! Imag­ine hold­ing a met­al that seems to obey rules nature once for­bid. You

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Packing Problems: The Math of Fitting Everything into Your Suitcase

Wel­come to Flash­cards Fri­day, at Math! Sci­ence! His­to­ry! I’m Gabrielle Bir­chak, and today, we’re going to take a quick trip into the suit­case, lit­er­al­ly. Have you ever found your­self sit­ting on your lug­gage, try­ing des­per­ate­ly to zip it shut? Or play­ing Tetris with your shoes and socks? Believe it or not, this prob­lem has fas­ci­nat­ed math­e­mati­cians and com­put­er sci­en­tists for

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Daniel Shiu on The Mathematical Legacy of Bletchley Park

Daniel Shiu on The Mathematical Legacy of Bletchley Park

MATH SCIENCE HISTORY TRANSCRIPTS GABRIELLE:Wel­come to Math! Sci­ence! His­to­ry! I have a spe­cial episode today that includes an inter­view with Daniel Shiu, where we dis­cuss his lat­est arti­cle, The Influ­ence of Bletch­ley Park on UK Math­e­mat­ics, which was pub­lished in the Tay­lor and Fran­cis jour­nal, Cryp­tolo­gia. It is such a won­der­ful arti­cle about Bletch­ley Park and the eclec­tic indi­vid­u­als that

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Jacoba van den Brande: Pioneer of Women’s Education

Jacoba van den Brande: Pioneer of Women’s Education

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTS It’s Flash­card Fri­day here at Math, Sci­ence, His­to­ry, when on Fri­days we post a short lit­tle flash card about some­thing mathy, sci­en­cy, or his­to­ry. I’m your host, Gabrielle Bir­chak, and I’m shar­ing a sto­ry about the life of a remark­able woman who made a pro­found, yet often over­looked, con­tri­bu­tion to math­e­mat­ics and edu­ca­tion: Jaco­ba van den Brande. Though

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Math, Logic and Paradoxes Explained

PODCAST TRAN­SCRIPTS­Does Math = Log­ic? Wel­come to Math, Sci­ence, His­to­ry, the pod­cast where we uncov­er the fas­ci­nat­ing sto­ries behind the num­bers, the equa­tions, and the dis­cov­er­ies that have shaped our world. I’m Gabrielle Bir­chak and today, we’re div­ing deep into the role of log­ic and argu­men­ta­tion in math­e­mat­ics. How do math­e­mati­cians prove their the­o­ries? What makes an argu­ment in math sound

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