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Mathematics is vital in ensuring that the lights stay on as the planners of the grid need to solve non-linear differential-algebraic equations to work out how much electricity can be generated, distributed and stored. These challenges will increase in the future.
Frost's line, 'I found a dimpled spider... holding up a moth like a white piece of rigid satin cloth' exploits simile... But how can a moth be like cloth? -This is one of a number of examples that will be explored with a view to refining our understanding of smilie.
We all rely on materials: natural ones like wood and stone - or manufactured ones such as steel, glass and concrete. The mathematics needed to design and study such materials is rich and challenging.
There was a time when old places were valued simply for their beauty and interest, but now this is not enough. Are calculations of the financial contribution of our history adding to the value of our heritage or have they fundamentally devalued it?
In the line, 'The Western wave was aflame', the 'Western wave' refers to the sea. But is it this simple? What do forms of substitution, synecdoche for example, lend to this magnificent and shadowy poem?
Science and technology creates moral problems in being able to both improve life and destroy it. How might Tolkein's 'Lord of the Rings' offer us reflections on scientific and religious frameworks which enable us to respect nature on the one hand, while transcending its limits on the other?
A celebration of the heart for St Valentine’s Day. How is it that a simple pump has become a symbol of the highest human emotions of love, truth, conscience and moral courage? How have artists represented this? An interdisciplinary presentation.
We all eat and have an interest in food! The many existing, and potential, applications of mathematics in agricultural-science and food technology will be described, explaining many of the fundamental processes that see us fed and watered.
The blight of the concrete municipal buildings of the 1960s and 70s in the historic centres of our cathedral cities is all too familiar. Everyone wants to avoid the same mistakes being made again, but can we reconcile old and new in our historic cities?