We live in an information age, with vast amounts of data constantly sent around the world. This lecture will introduce you to the mathematics of information. I will explain how data is transmitted and received over vast distances by using carefully designed codes, and how work by a young French mathematician in the 19th century plays a vital role in this. I will then show how a huge amount of information is encoded in your genes and how maths can make sense of it.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-is-coded-in-your-genes

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

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