Tonight’s talk will be given by Dr Julia Gog.

Talk
Speaker: Dr Julia Gog
Title: Hunting for viral packaging signals
Abstract: Influenza has a genome split into several segments, and this complicates virus particle assembly as each particle must have one of each of the segments. This means that each of the RNA segments must contain some signal, and that this signal ought to be fairly conserved. Is this enough to go and hunt them down using mathematics? The answer turns out to be yes. However, this required some creativity in algorithm design, drawing inspiration from a number of apparently unrelated problems. This hack seems to work, but leaves some interesting mathematical problems. I’ll also briefly talk about some of the other problems in influenza and infectious disease that interest me, and general joys and challenges of being a mathematician trying to research biology.

The talk will take place at 8:30PM on Monday 6 February in the Winstanley Lecture Theatre. As usual there will be free port and juice served before the talk at 8:15PM. This talk is for members only, but there will be a chance to sign up for TMS life membership for £2.50.

This week’s talk will be given by Prof John Lister.

Talk
Speaker: Prof John Lister
Title: Stretching, bending, twisting and coiling: how to build a fluid-mechanical sewing machine
Abstract: Idlers at breakfast watching a stream of honey falling from a knife, may notice it buckle and coil as it reaches the toast. What happens if you move the toast (or the knife) steadily sideways? This talk will outline the mathematical description of the dynamics of a falling viscous thread, with possible diversions via chocolate fountains and Viennetta ice-cream.

The talk will take place at 8:30PM on Monday 30 January in the Winstanley Lecture Theatre. As usual there will be free port and juice served before the talk at 8:15PM. This talk is for members only, but there will be a chance to sign up for TMS life membership for £2.50.

Welcome back to the TMS! The first talk of 2017 will be given by Dr Tamara von Glehn.

Talk
Speaker: Dr Tamara von Glehn
Title: Logic in other universes
Abstract: When doing ordinary mathematics, we don’t usually think too hard about exactly what logical rules are being used. But sometimes using for example the law of excluded middle or the axiom of choice can have unexpected consequences. In this talk I will explore some alternatives of classical logic. There are other ‘mathematical universes’, or toposes, in which different logical axioms can hold. I will introduce some of the structures used to express this logic, and describe what mathematics can look like inside a topos.

The talk will take place tonight at 8:30PM in the Winstanley Lecture Theatre. As usual there will be free port and juice served before the talk at 8:15PM. This talk is for members only, but there will be a chance to sign up for TMS life membership for £2.50.

Tonight at 20:30 Prof Imre Leader will give a talk to the TMS in the Winstanley Lecture Theatre.
As usual there will be port and juice served 15 minutes before the talk.

Talk
Speaker: Prof Imre Leader (DPMMS)
Title: Cops and Robbers
Abstract: Some cops are chasing a robber around a finite network. Moves alternate: the robber moves from where he is to an adjacent place, then all the cops move to adjacent places, and so on. For a given network, how many cops are needed to catch the robber?

On Monday 7th November Dr. Perla Sousi gave a talk to the TMS!

Talk
Speaker: Dr. Perla Sousi (Statslab)
Title: Percolation and Random Walks
Abstract: Consider the two dimensional lattice and keep every edge with probability p, independently over different edges. It is known that there exists a critical probability p_c so that for all p > p_c there exists a unique infinite connected component. But how well connected is this infinite cluster? One way to evaluate this is by examining the rate of spread of a simple random walk on the cluster.

We’ve got a great talk for the society this week with Prof. Jonathan Mestel (Imperial) at 8:30pm Monday 31 October in the Winstanley Lecture Theatre, Trinity College. There will be port and juice served 15 minutes before the talk.

Talk
Speaker: Prof. Jonathan Mestel (Imperial)
Title: More Fun than a Barrel of Monkeys
Abstract: Imagine millions of small monkeys in a barrel, all pressing and rubbing against each other. More simply, imagine a cylinder of fluid – water, ink, metal, blood or tar. Proverbially, the fun of all activities is to be measured against this yardstick. This talk will demonstrate why.

Cambridge Puzzle Hunt
We have a third taster puzzle “Cambridge Safari”. You can find it through the Puzzlehunt website (http://cph.soc.srcf.net/puzzles/) where you can also submit your answer. Alternatively, you can submit it in person in the puzzle box at the TMS talk on Monday or the TCSS talk on Tuesday. We will draw a winner on Wednesday.

The Cambridge Puzzle Hunt has its own website: http://cph.soc.srcf.net/
If you are interested in participating you can join the mailing list: https://www.srcf.net/mailman/listinfo/cph-all

On Monday 24 October Dr Marj Batchelor gave a talk to the TMS!

Talk
Speaker: Dr Marj Batchelor
Title: The Rewards of Thinking Coalgebraically
Abstract: The theory of coalgebras is not taught in the undergraduate syllabus, nor yet in Part III or even as a graduate course, but not because of any great conceptual difficulty. Indeed most toddlers who grow up with at least one sibling and an aunt foolish enough to provide but a single box of chocolates for the two of them to share have a keen instinctive understanding of the essential idea. As an example of the advantages of thinking coalgebraically, I will talk about the enrichment of the category of algebras over coalgebras, and specifically the consequent benefits afforded to the concept of “maps between modules”.

Cambridge Puzzle Hunt
The Cambridge Puzzle Hunt now has its own website: http://cph.soc.srcf.net/
If you are interested in participating you can join the mailing list: https://www.srcf.net/mailman/listinfo/cph-all

You can submit your answer into the puzzle box at the TMS talk on Monday or the TCSS talk on Tuesday. Alternatively you can use the online submission form. We will draw a winner on Wednesday. More information can be found here: http://cph.soc.srcf.net/puzzles/

On Friday Prof. Béla Bollobás will give a talk on Polynomials in Combinatorics and Topology. Note that unlike our other events this talk will start at 7PM in Meeting Room 2 of the Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Wilberforce Road.

Abstract: Although polynomials are not prominent in either combinatorics or topology, they are important tools in both. In the talk I shall introduce several polynomials with beautiful and surprising applications in combinatorics and topology. The talk will be accessible to freshmen but should be of interest to research students as well.

I hope to see you on Friday!