Chalkdust

Sleep, coffee and cheating at Tetris feature in our SS26 issue! Plus all your favourite puzzles & columns. The post Read Issue 23 now! appeared first on Chalkdust .

Sam Kay and Ellen Jolley race against the body clock with the University of Surrey professor The post In conversation with Anne Skeldon appeared first on Chalkdust .

Matthew Scroggs puts polyominoes inside polygons The post On the cover: A new puzzle every day appeared first on Chalkdust .

If you'll open your textbook to page... oh, the cat's sitting on it The post Comic: Introduction to catalysis appeared first on Chalkdust .

Travel, trade and Tony Blackburn pepper the prof's postbag this issue The post Dear Dirichlet, Issue 23 appeared first on Chalkdust .

Ffreuer Bristow works out which pieces can force someone to lose The post Cheating at Tetris appeared first on Chalkdust .

Always banging on about how numbers were better in the good old days? Take our quiz to find out how old you really are… The post Which generation are you? appeared first on Chalkdust .

Fashion is fleeting, Chalkdust regulars are not. The post What’s hot and what’s not, Issue 23 appeared first on Chalkdust .

Barry Pawlik builds words and sentences from doubles The post The secret life of words appeared first on Chalkdust .

✋ Which is best? 🤚 The post The big argument: 6 or 7? appeared first on Chalkdust .

Pre-order your copy of issue 23 now! The post Chalkdust issue 23 – Coming 20 April appeared first on Chalkdust .

Junaid Mubeen is a mathematician and educator and the author of Think Like a Mathematician (Waterstones, Profile Books). Style After a short introduction, Think Like a Mathematician takes us on a journey through ten big ideas in maths. These ideas are largely on the more pure side of maths, although the contexts and analogies throughout the book will make them feel more applied than you might hav…

Eugenia Cheng is a mathematician, educator, concert pianist and the author of Unequal: The Maths of When Things Do (And Don’t) Add Up (Waterstones). Style This book uses the notion of equality and the meaning of = as a launching point to look at equality in a wide range of context, including looking at approximation, when functions are equal, and category theory. Control As you’d expect if you’ve…

Robin Wilson is a mathematician and maths communicator whose latest book Sum Stories (Oxford University Press, Waterstones) came out in 2025. Style Each chapter of this book tells the story of one equation (or the story of a “sum”—hence the book’s title). These equations come from all over maths and the book is a really nice introduction to a wide range of areas of maths. Control The book is well…

Snezana Lawrence is a mathematician and historian and the author of A Little History of Mathematics (Waterstones). Style A Little History of Mathematics summarises a wide array of mathematical achievements, starting from the earliest known mathematicians and working all the way up to (pretty much) today. A huge number of mathematical characters from history are introduced in the book (many of who…

Joseph O’Rourke is a professor of computer science at Smith College, Massachusetts, USA. The Mathematics of Origami (Cambridge University Press) is his book that looks at… the mathematics of origami. Style Anyone with a maths degree with immediately recognise the style and layout (and font) of this book. It’s very clearly written using LaTeX, and follows a theorem/proof structure like many sets o…

Adam Kucharski is a Professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Proof (Waterstones, Profile), is Kucharski’s third book and focuses on how mathematics is used to analyse experiments and establish the truth from the noise. Style The book is clearly written and an enjoyable read. I was particularly interested when Kucharski is discuses his exp…

Thomas Briggs is a maths communicator, museum educator, and self declared maths fan. The Mathematicians’ Library (Waterstones, Bookshop.org), is his first book and is a tour of mathematical books through the ages. Style The Mathematicians’ Library has 6 chapters each focussed on a different time period. Starting in 40000 BCE and ending up in the modern day. The book is full of pictures of the boo…

It’s time to announce the shortlist for the Chalkdust Magazine Book of the Year award. One maths book that was published in 2025 will be joining the previous winners by receiving this prestigious award. Additionally, you—our readers—can vote for your favourite book on the shortlist, by completing the poll at the bottom of this page. We have picked seven maths-themed books released in 2025 to be o…

It is too easy to believe that all theorems published in the leading math journals are too technical to understand. This is not always the case. In 2014, Yitang Zhang proved that there are infinitely many pairs of prime numbers $p$ and $q$ such that $0 < p-q \leq 70,000,000$. This is dramatic progress towards the twin prime conjecture, which claims that there are infinitely many prime numbers, $p…