
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Brian Cox and Robin Ince unpick the hidden codes behind the shapes we see in nature with mathematicians Sarah Hart & Thomas Woolley and comedian Dave Gorman.
The panel marvel at how evolution so often beats mathematicians to finding the most elegant solutions, after all, it’s had millennia to experiment. How do trees achieve the optimal distribution of leaves and why are tortoise shells so geometrically exciting?
Plus we learn why the cheetah got its spots, thanks to the work of Thomas Woolley’s mathematical hero, Alan Turing, how numbers can be more or less irrational, and why Dave Gorman has a vendetta against oblongs.
Producer: Melanie Brown
By BBC Radio 44.7
18461,846 ratings
Brian Cox and Robin Ince unpick the hidden codes behind the shapes we see in nature with mathematicians Sarah Hart & Thomas Woolley and comedian Dave Gorman.
The panel marvel at how evolution so often beats mathematicians to finding the most elegant solutions, after all, it’s had millennia to experiment. How do trees achieve the optimal distribution of leaves and why are tortoise shells so geometrically exciting?
Plus we learn why the cheetah got its spots, thanks to the work of Thomas Woolley’s mathematical hero, Alan Turing, how numbers can be more or less irrational, and why Dave Gorman has a vendetta against oblongs.
Producer: Melanie Brown

7,713 Listeners

531 Listeners

876 Listeners

1,054 Listeners

298 Listeners

5,534 Listeners

2,104 Listeners

4,880 Listeners

484 Listeners

417 Listeners

412 Listeners

764 Listeners

238 Listeners

477 Listeners

351 Listeners

235 Listeners

327 Listeners

3,214 Listeners

109 Listeners

74 Listeners

93 Listeners

679 Listeners

582 Listeners

627 Listeners

196 Listeners

378 Listeners

244 Listeners

53 Listeners

78 Listeners

396 Listeners

102 Listeners