The Function Room

By GoLoudScience Mathematics

The Function Room episodes

October 19, 2023 33 Climate Worrier
Climate Worrier - the maths of Climate Change.
I talk to mathematiciand a man wading kneed deep in the climate models, Chris Budd. Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Bath, He takes me painstakingly -but not painfully- through the key Big Numbers that you should know about when it comes to climate change. We recorded this a couple of years ago during Maths Week 2023 and guess what, it's still an issue! WHo knew?
(Apologies for sound quality on this, I have a slight Long Wave Radio sound about me, just it was a youtube interview and I think the internet had covid when we recorded.)
54 min
October 16, 2023 32 All the Pieces Matter
This week it's the maths of puzzles, and how to get wrap your brain around the fact that the answer isn't obvious. Rob Eastaway is my guest- the first returning guest. He has a book out called Headscratchers - a compendium of puzzles from the last five years of the New Scientist. And he's over in Ireland for Mathsweek. (check out mathsweek.ie). And given the weekend that was in it, we really have to do a snippet on the maths of rugby.
26 min
October 04, 2023 31 It's in Our Nature
this week in the function room, It's in our Nature - the fascinating world of biomimicry
My guest is Kathyrn Parkes, a technologist with a career spanning nearly 3 decades in designing products and an expert in User Experience. She tells me about what we can learn from nature, the stigmergy of termites, why ants don't have a boss, the benefits of hippo sweat, but also some unusual stuff too.
53 min
September 21, 2023 30 Anyone's Guess
this week in the function room, It's Anyone's Guess - the maths of guesswork
David Malone of Maynooth University and the Hamilton Institute. I ride the wave of ignorance through some big topics like Information theory, Entropy, what makes a good password and how hard it would be to figure out what I had for breakfast.
But first, I notice David has that all important mathematician background behind him in the interview - a white board with lots of squiggly symbols. i have to ask
1 hr
September 11, 2023 29 The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same
The maths of symmetry.
Hi it’s me Colm O’Regan. The function room is back after a little summer break and my guest is Pauline Mellon, professor of mathematics at UCD
She wants to talk about symmetry and I’m glad she did. She brings me on a tour of maths, religion, biology, art, chemistry, AI and naturally of course town planning.
50 min
July 10, 2023 28 Things Fall Apart
The baffling arithmetic of Dereliction.
I talk to Jude Sherry and Frank O’Connor of Derelict Ireland who ask the very simple question about an equation that makes no sense: Why is it that there are tens of thousands of people who need a home and tens of thousand of empty buildings that could be homes.
Although specifically about Ireland, this is a question that could be asked anywhere.
43 min
July 03, 2023 27 A Sense of Ounce
Function Room 27 A Sense Of Ounce – The absolutely fascinating history of one of the most important hallmarks of our existence - how and why we measure things.
James Vincent has written a book, Beyond Measure about it and he joins me to talk about this thing we completely take for granted that has changed the world, been part of revolutions, where the metre is stored and also the very strange world of anti-metric guerillas.
52 min
June 28, 2023 26 Chums' Pedigree
My guest is author of Chums, Simon Kuper about how a small cabal of Oxford chums managed to take over British politics. And from his book just how crap an Oxford and Eton education could be and you can still make it to the top. Along the way we learn what happens when a generation of leaders neither has a clue nor gives a toss about science and maths, the curious case of Jacob Rees Mogg, why Boris Johnson has been an accidental anarchist. what the French for chums is.
41 min
June 19, 2023 #25 Crime Numbers
The maths of Criminology. With Ian Marder, Assistant Professor of Criminology at Maynooth University. We talk about statistics and randomized control studies, and bias and how crime always seems worse than it is, why you should get on with your neighbours and to build the ideal justice system
52 min
June 09, 2023 24 Carbon of Contention
My guest is Dr Muireann Lynch of the economic and social research institute here in Ireland. She very carefully guides me an idiot on my first tour of the c-word. Carbon. How much it costs to use it, how much it costs, the maths of optimisation, Lagrange multipliers, carbon offsets, what happens when carbon has an infinite price.
Warning – this contains traces of calculus that some listeners may find upsetting. But stick with it and we eventually get onto lighter topics like making twixes or other nougat-biscuit equivlants and then of course the end of habitable earth.
52 min

About The Function Room

From the publisher's feed

A podcast about the big numbers, the hard sums, the mathematics that defines, runs, shapes, changes, begins, ends, every things our lives and the world around us. Hosted by Colm O'Regan. An…