Cristóbal Vila has a way with computer modelling and 3D graphics that brings mathematics to life. Nature by Numbers is a short movie inspired by numbers, geometry and nature. Simply beautiful...

In his excellent book, The Flaw of Averages (review), Sam Savage identifies the seven deadly sins of averaging. How many of these sins have cropped up in your recent decisions?

In 2009 Sam Savage published his book, The Flaw of Averages, and very good it is too. I will be reviewing it when I have a moment. Take a look, though, at Sam’s interview by Reason.tv. What’s most amusing (or frightening) are the comments.

Mathematics has come in for criticism recently, that somehow it was the root cause of the credit crunch and the collapse of the world economy. That’s harsh. It was the misuse of mathematics, by bosses who didn’t understand it, that got us into the mire.

Marcus du Sautoy’s recent column in The Times, “Sexy maths: Arithmetic eases swine flu worries”, got me thinking about modelling the spread of infectious diseases.

Imagine a drunk walking down the white line in the middle of the road, with traffic passing on both sides. The state of the drunk based on his average position is ALIVE. But the average state of the drunk is DEAD.