Debunking myths about the "Third World"

You've never seen data presented like this. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so-called "developing world" using extraordinary animation software developed by his Gapminder Foundation. The Trendalyzer software (recently acquired by Google) turns complex global trends into lively animations, making decades of data pop. Asian countries, as colorful bubbles, float across the grid -- toward better national health and wealth. Animated bell curves representing national income distribution squish and flatten. In Rosling's hands, global trends -- life expectancy, child mortality, poverty rates -- become clear, intuitive and even playful.

Blind Date - Olde English Sketch Comedy

Pi or π is a mathematical constant and a transcendental (and therefore irrational) real number, approximately equal to 3.14159, which is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter in Euclidean geometry, and has many uses in mathematics, physics, and engineering. (...)

The mathematical constant e is the unique real number such that the value of the derivative (slope of the tangent line) of f(x) = e^x at the point x = 0 is exactly 1. The function e^x so defined is called the exponential function, and its inverse is the natural logarithm, or logarithm to base e. The number e is occasionally called Euler's number after the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler, or Napier's constant in honor of the Scottish mathematician John Napier who introduced logarithms.

Quantum Cryptography: A Tale of Secrets Revealed Through the Laws of Physics

Perimeter Institute brings great thinkers from around the world to Canada to share their ideas on a wide variety of interesting and topical subjects. These lectures and debates are aimed at non-specialists. No mathematical or scientific knowledge is necessary or assumed. Each event is explicitly tailored for the general public and everyone is welcome to attend. (...)

Daniel Gottesman - Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

Sensitive information can be valuable to others - from your personal credit card numbers to state and military secrets. Throughout history, sophisticated codes have been developed in an attempt to keep important data from prying eyes. But now, new technologies are emerging based on the surprising laws of quantum physics that govern the atomic scale. These powerful techniques threaten to crack some secret codes in widespread use today and, at the same time, offer new quantum cryptographic protocols which could one day profoundly alter the way we safeguard critical information.

The Nature of Space

KITP Public Lecture Series: The Nature of Space

For more than two thousand years philosophers, mathematicians and physicists have struggled to understand the nature of space. Kant studied the role of the human mind, mathematicians examined the logical ramifications of space and physicists investigated experimental phenomena. Einstein showed how space and time are inextricably linked. The story continues to the present day, with increasingly exotic scenarios of vibrating strings in ten dimensional space-time. Michael Atiyah will review the history and present status of the great philosophical controversies in the light of modern developments.

The story of 1

The story of the number one is the story of Western civilization. Terry Jones ("Monty Python's Flying Circus") goes on a humor-filled journey to recount the amazing tale behind the world's simplest number. Using computer graphics, "One" is brought to life, in all his various guises, in STORY OF 1. One's story reveals how celebrated civilizations in history were achieved, where our modern numbers came from and how the invention of zero changed the world forever - and saved us from having to use Roman numerals today.

How old is One? A precise answer is impossible, but a notched bone (called the Ishango bone) found in the Congo proves that he's been around for at least 20,000 years. His life really took off 6,000 years ago, when the Sumerians turned him into a cone-shaped token and then into the first-ever numeric character, invention that made arithmetic - and therefore city life - possible, providing the means to assess wealth, calculate profits and loss, and, perhaps most important, collect taxes.

How juries get fooled by statistics - Peter Donnelly

Statistician Peter Donnelly explores the common mistakes humans make in interpreting statistics, and the devastating impact these errors can have on the outcome of criminal trials. Donnelly is a statistics professor at Oxford University who collaborates with biologists, applying statistical models to genetics, with the hope of shedding more light on evolutionary history and the structure of the human genome.

Statistical Physics, Computer Simulation, and Probability

Google TechTalks Bay Area Discrete Math Day XII April 15, 2006, Raissa D'Souza (UC Davis)

Statistical physics, computer simulation and discrete mathematics are intimately related through the study of shared models. These are primarily lattice models, such as the Ising model, yet can also involve discrete structures such as networks. Several models illustrate the current interplay between these three fields, while also providing cautionary tales of interpolating results obtained in one realm to the other. This talk will survey several such models, focusing on pattern formation in a simple first-order jamming transition.