Latest Mathematica Podcast Episodes

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Smashing Particles up Against Mathematics

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - March 08, 2024 18:33 - 9 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Dr. Abiy Tasissa of Tufts University, discusses the mathematics he and colleagues used to study particle collider data, including optimal transport and optimization. Collider physics often result in distributions referred to as jets. Dr. Tasissa and his team used "Earth Mover's Distance"...

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Supporting Wildlife with Statistics

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - February 16, 2024 14:33 - 9 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Dr. Outi Tervo of Greenland Institute for Natural Resources, shares how mathematics helps recommend speed limits for marine vessels, which benefits narwhals and Inuit culture. Narwhals "can only be found in the Arctic," said Outi Tervo, a senior scientist at GINR. "These species are going...

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Explaining Wildfires Through Curvature

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - October 17, 2023 14:33 - 11 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Dr. Valentina Wheeler of University of Wollongong, Australia, shares how her work influences efforts to understand wildfires and red blood cells. In Australia, where bushfires are a concern year-round, researchers have long tried to model these wildfires, hoping to learn information that ...

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Bridges and Wheels, Tricycles and Squares

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - October 13, 2023 14:33 - 11 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Dr. Stan Wagon of Macalester College discusses the mathematics behind rolling a square smoothly. In 1997, inspired by a square wheel exhibit at The Exploratorium museum in San Francsico, Dr. Stan Wagon enlisted his neighbor Loren Kellen in building a square-wheeled tricycle and accompany...

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Bringing Photographs to Life

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - July 13, 2023 15:49 - 11 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Dr. Rekha Thomas from the University of Washington discusses three-dimensional image reconstructions from two-dimensional photos. The mathematics of image reconstruction is both simpler and more abstract than it seems. To reconstruct a 3D model based on photographic data, researchers and...

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Giving Health Care Policy a Dose of Mathematics

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - April 05, 2023 14:49 - 11 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Imelda Flores Vazquez from Econometrica, Inc. explains how economists use mathematics to evaluate the efficacy of health care policies. When a hospital or government wants to adjust their health policies — for instance, by encouraging more frequent screenings for certain diseases — how do...

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Using Math to Support Cancer Research

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - December 29, 2022 06:39 - 10 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Stacey Finley from University of Southern California discusses how mathematical models support the research of cancer biology. Cancer research is a crucial job, but a difficult one. Tumors growing inside the human body are affected by all kinds of factors. These conditions are difficult (...

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Keeping the Lights On

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - November 15, 2022 14:38 - 14 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Rodney Kizito from U.S. Department of Energy discusses solar energy, mathematics, and microgrids. When you flip a switch to turn on a light, where does that energy come from? In a traditional power grid, electricity is generated at large power plants and then transmitted long distances. B...

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Driving Up Air Pollution

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - June 28, 2022 14:38 - 12 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Karen Rios Soto explains how mathematics illuminates the link between air pollution from motor vehicle emissions and asthma. Air pollution causes the premature deaths of an estimated seven million people each year, and it makes life worse for all of us. People with asthma can experience c...

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Deblurring Images

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - May 19, 2022 14:38 - 10 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Malena Espanol explains how she and others use linear algebra to correct blurry images. Imagine snapping a quick picture of a flying bird. The image is likely to come out blurry. But thanks to mathematics, you might be able to use software to improve the photo. Scientists often deal with ...

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Exploring Thermodynamics with Billiards

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - February 14, 2022 18:38 - 13 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Tim Chumley explains the connections between random billiards and the science of heat and energy transfer. If you've ever played billiards or pool, you've used your intuition and some mental geometry to plan your shots. Mathematicians have gone a step further, using these games as inspira...

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Pinpointing How Genes Interact

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - October 21, 2021 18:38 - 14 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Lorin Crawford explains how he uses math to analyze interactions between genes. Your DNA (the biological instruction manual in all of your cells) contains a mind-boggling amount of information represented in roughly 20,000 genes that encode proteins, plus a similar number of genes with ot...

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Securing Data in the Quantum Era

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - September 01, 2021 18:38 - 13 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Angela Robinson explains the math behind the next generation of cryptographic algorithms. Whenever you log in to a website, send an email, or make an online purchase, you're counting on your data being sent securely, without hackers being able to crack the code. Our standard cryptographic...

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Taking the "Temperature" of Languages

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - July 06, 2021 18:38 - 17 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Ricardo Bermudez-Otero and Tobias Galla discuss the mathematics describing the evolution of human languages. The sounds and structures of the world's approximately 7,000 languages never stop changing. Just compare the English in Romeo and Juliet or the Spanish in Don Quixote to the modern...

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Doing the Math

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - May 24, 2021 18:38 - 11 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Math may sometimes seem as if it's comprised of countless meaningless unconnected exercises, but in reality, it's much more. It's figuring out how to do something, and, even better, why something works the way it does. The math you're doing now can open doors for you so that you can answer deep q...

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Making Room for Patients

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - April 26, 2021 18:38 - 15 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
We've seen that the availability of hospital beds is important during a pandemic, and it's important during normal times as well. Whether it's for emergency medical help or for a scheduled procedure (for example, chemotherapy), access to hospital space, staff, and equipment can be a matter of lif...

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Fighting Fires

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - March 22, 2021 18:38 - 18 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
In many places, fire seasons keep getting longer with larger and ever more destructive wildfires. Teams of mathematicians, computer scientists, meteorologists, and firefighters are working to reduce the number of large fires before they happen and to contain those that do occur. Mark Finney talks...

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Describing Dryland Vegetation Patterns

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - February 22, 2021 18:38 - 9 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Math is often described as the science of patterns, which makes it a natural subject to help in the study of the underlying causes of patterns found in nature, for example, bands of vegetation that often occur on gently sloped terrains in certain near-desert ecosystems worldwide. We are starting ...

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Mixing Math and Cooking

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - January 25, 2021 18:38 - 24 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Math's connection with cooking extends beyond the mathematical constant that sounds like a dessert. For example, using differential equations to model fluid flow and heat transfer, research teams have found how spaghetti curls as it's cooked, how to rotate a pan to make the perfect crepe (thin pa...

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Cracking Open Black Boxes

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - January 27, 2020 18:38 - 18 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Algorithms can be very useful, but lately, with so much data being created and shared, and with the increase in their use in critical areas such as hiring, credit, and health care, algorithms are under intense scrutiny about their fairness. People experience the effects of an algorithm's conclusi...

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Solving the Mystery of the Wine Legs

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - October 21, 2019 18:38 - 15 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
What causes wine legs (tears)? Andrea Bertozzi explains and describes how to generate legs.

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Picturing Powehi

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - September 23, 2019 18:38 - 4 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Fumie Tazaki talks about creating the first image of a black hole and its shadow, which relied on Fourier transforms. About the work to make the image, she says, "Our collaboration has 200 members and we did it with all of our efforts."

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Unmasking Deepfakes

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - September 23, 2019 18:35 - 4 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Hany Farid talks about fighting fake videos: "Mathematically, there's a lot of linear algebra, multivariate calculus, probability and statistics, and then a lot of techniques from pattern recognition, signal processing, and image processing."

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Making Beautiful Mathematics

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - September 23, 2019 18:31 - 4 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Rob Schneiderman talks about the metaphorical connections between math and music

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Keeping People Alive Part 2

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - August 19, 2019 19:23 - 4 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Steven Strogatz and Mary Bushman talk about math's role in controlling HIV and understanding malaria, respectively. Mary Bushman says, "It's really cool to try and use math to nail down some questions that have gone unanswered for a really long time."

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Keeping People Alive Part 1

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - August 19, 2019 19:20 - 4 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Steven Strogatz and Mary Bushman talk about math's role in controlling HIV and understanding malaria, respectively. Mary Bushman says, "It's really cool to try and use math to nail down some questions that have gone unanswered for a really long time."

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Making the Earth Flat

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - June 12, 2019 17:34 - 4 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Tom Patterson and Bojan Savric discuss the Equal Earth projection map that they created with Bernhard Jenny.

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Screening for Autism

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - June 10, 2019 17:31 - 4 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Researcher: Jordan Hashemi, Duke University Description: Jordan Hashemi talks about an easy-to-use app to screen for autism.

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Unbunching Buses

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - June 09, 2019 17:24 - 4 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Researchers: Vikash V. Gayah and S. Ilgin Guler, Pennsylvania State University Description: Gayah and Guler talk about mitigating the clustering of buses on a route.

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society artwork

Winning the Race

Mathematical Moments from the American Mathematical Society - June 02, 2019 17:16 - 4 minutes ★★★★ - 10 ratings
Researcher: Christine Darden, NASA (retired) Description: Christine Darden on working at NASA.