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Human Progress
This is the story of a research project that is so wild that no funding agency would have approved it—but we believe in it, so we are doing it anyway. My colleague Meren said we should record the story of this project as oral histories. He already started his, this is the start of mine.…
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Bristol Bridges Walk
I was teaching Engineering Mathematics at the University of Bristol when it happened: “Is that possible in Bristol?” one of my students asked. It was a reasonable question. I had been talking about the Königsberg Bridge Problem, the foundational problem that created Graph Theory and by extension modern Network Science. The problem asks if one…
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Königsberg Bridge Problem
The foundations of network science is graph theory, and at the beginning of graph theory stands one problem that started it all: The Königsberg Bridge Problem. The problem poses a simple challenge: “Can you go on a walk that crosses every one of the seven bridges of historical Königsberg exactly once?” No, you can’t. Some…
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Patterns of Life
Life is full of patterns: From the stripes of the tiger to the spots on the leopard, the coats of animals come in many colours and shapes. Still there is a shared element between all the biological patterns, a similar aesthetic. Some patterns are clearly shaped by morphology, e.g. the wings on a bird having…
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Creative Reactions
Living in Bristol was fun because there is always something new and exciting happening in the city. One day I became aware of the creative reactions program, an initiative to foster contacts between art and science. Through this program I got into contact with graphical artist Frankie Partridge, we spent long hours talking about complexity…
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Video-Art with Hydra
Hydra is a project by software artist Olivia Jack. In a nutshell it builds on video filters that are already built in your web browser. Hydra gives you direct control over these so-called shaders, using a simple programming language. The result is a website which can pull in files from memory, livestreams and cameras and…