Fair Dice

Famed probability professor Persi Diaconis was kind enough to speak with me (for Numberphile) about the fairness of dice.

The interview is in two parts... Here is part one and part two.

Pete McPartlan did the animations in these videos, and thanks to Zac Labby for permission to use footage of his dice machine.

Here is the paper Persi makes reference to.

For more videos we've done with Persi, on topics such as card shuffling and coin tossing, see this playlist.

And here is a Numberphile playlist dedicated to dice.

Olympic Games

It's the Olympics, and in the great tradition of "topical videos" (or ambush marketing, as the IOC calls it), I've released a Numberphile video about the hardest question posed at the International Math Olympiad (from back in 1988).

Here is the video and its sequel.

And here are some Olympic videos I've done in previous years across all channels...

Science is Global

I am not a scientist. But I make lots of videos about science.

This has given me an appreciation for the global nature of science, which is being highlighted by the Royal Society's "Science is Global" campaign. (More here)

The society is encouraging people to take photos of lab groups showing the nationality of people in their groups (like this), showcasing the importance of movement between nations.

Without this ease of movement - this sharing of ideas, talent and resources - science would progress much more slowly. And that is bad for everyone in the world, not just professional scientists. 

Here are some science videos I've been involved with in recent years.

CHILE 🇨🇱  (more videos from this trip here)

INDIA 🇮🇳  (more from India here)

ETHIOPIA 🇪🇹  (more from this trip here)

SWEDEN 🇸🇪  (more from this trip here)

CHINA 🇨🇳 

AUSTRALIA 🇦🇺  (more from Down Under)

NEPAL 🇳🇵

FRANCE 🇫🇷

BRAZIL 🇧🇷  (more from Brazil)

SWITZERLAND 🇨🇭  (more videos at the Large Hadron Collider)

IRELAND 🇮🇪

ANTARCTICA 🇦🇶

UNITED STATES 🇺🇸

ITALY 🇮🇹  (more from our Turin Trip)

UNITED KINGDOM 🇬🇧

Doctor of Letters

On July 20, 2016, I received an honorary doctorate from the University of Nottingham.

It was a Doctor of Letters honoris causa.

It was a really great day and I'm grateful to everyone involved.

The ceremony was presided over by the University's Vice-Chancellor, Sir David Greenaway, and the oration was delivered by Professor Michael Merrifield.

I think 173 students from the School of Physics and Astronomy received their (real deal) graduation certificates, and then I got to say a few words at the end.

Below is some video footage from the event and a few photos.

I think maybe I prefer this "unofficial" video of the speech... Makes the laughter sound louder!

Anti-Prime Numbers

This Numberphile video, featuring Dr James Grime, is about so-called Highly Composite Numbers.

Or as I prefer to call them, Anti-Primes, because to me they seem as far removed from being prime as possible.

Here - posted on Numberphile's extras channel - is more footage about there being Infinite Anti-Primes and a nice blunder by Ramanujan.

And finally I thought this was worth sharing because:
a) I have seen other people make the incorrect assumption in YouTube comments.
b) It is fun to see how Numberphile videos are made and how we sometimes think on our feet, with mixed results!

If you like seeing the extra footage from Numberphile videos, can I recommend you subscribe to Numberphile2 on YouTube.

Highly Composite Numbers on Wikipedia.

And here is a good resource about very large HCNs.

After filming, I learned I'm not the first person to suggest calling these numbers anti-prime - see this 2009 blog post.

To Stay or not to Stay?

The UK is holding a referendum about whether it will leave or remain in the European Union!?

I spoke to two scientists who feature prominently in my videos - Sir Martyn Poliakoff and Professor Mike Merrifield.

These videos represent their personal views and answers to my questions - it does not represent any of the organisations they're involved with.

You can also hear me discuss the EU referendum with CGP Grey on episode 63 of Hello Internet (the discussion starts about 1:14.30 into the podcast).