A glimpse into a Three-Continents Workshop
The world is opening up again, but I think it's fair to say the organisation of workshops and conferences is not at all back to normal yet.
Enigma: a complexity titan
In times of war, secure communication can be the difference between life and death, or even winning or losing a war. The first to patent a rotor machine in Europe was Arthur Scherbius in 1918. Scherbius’ version of the rotor machine became a commercial success, unlike the other patented machines. Scherbius named his machine Enigma.
Cycling to 57,912 National Monuments in the Netherlands
In March 2021 the largest roadmap instance of the traveling salesman problem ever was solved. This is a new record for the Travelling Salesman!
Discussing with two great mathematicians
Before the summer break we interviewed together with Raf Bocklandt mathematicians David Aldous and László Lovász.
A big breakthrough in the Euclidean Travelling Salesman Problem
Recently there has been a breakthrough in the field of algorithms for geometric network problems, concerning the complexity of the Euclidean Travelling Salesman Problem.
Sociomaths: The maths of living apart together
Phenomena like social cohesion and polarisation emerge from individual interactions on the social network of relationships between people. So, what does this network look like?
DNA self-assembly gives birth to new mathematics
At this very moment, the emergent science of DNA self-assembly is giving birth to a new field of mathematics that might be called DNA-mathematics. Cleverly constructed DNA molecules will self-assemble into pre-determined complex structures when placed in solution together.
Not all jet-lags are the same
The part of the brain that controls the sleeping cycle is made up of two groups of neurons. In order for you to be able to sleep at night, the activity of these neurons needs to be synchronized with the cycle of the sun (e.g. active during the day and inactive at night). When you abruptly change the cycle of the sun (by flying to New York) these two groups need to re-synchronize to the new sun-cycle.
Gödel's incompleteness theorem in 15 minutes?
Is it possible to fully understand Gödel's incompleteness theorem in 15 minutes?
Predicting optimal routes in unpredictable networks
How does your navigation system find the fastest route in a road network, if it does not know where traffic jams occur and how long they last?