Marcus du Sautoy
Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford
15 episodes
Appears in multiple episodes with: Timothy Gowers, Colva Roney-Dougal, Ian Stewart, Jackie Stedall, Robin Wilson
Covers topics in categories such as:
Pierre-Simon Laplace
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great French mathematician who tackled questions on the stability of the Solar System and planet rotation and devised the basis for metrication
8 April 2021
Also featuring: Timothy Gowers, Colva Roney-Dougal
HistoryFellows of the Royal SocietyFellows of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesMembers of the Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesMembers of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and SciencesMembers of the French Academy of SciencesMembers of the Académie Française18th-century French mathematiciansFrench deistsDeterministsFrench physicistsGrand Officers of the Legion of HonourFrench agnosticsLinear algebraistsFrench mathematicians, French fluid dynamicists, French probability theoristsCarl Friedrich Gauss
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas of Gauss, 'prince of mathematicians', including those on number theory, geometry, probability theory, astronomy and electromagnetism.
30 November 2017
Also featuring: Colva Roney-Dougal, Nick Evans
ScienceFellows of the Royal SocietyFellows of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesRecipients of the Copley MedalMembers of the Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesHonorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of SciencesMembers of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and SciencesGerman LutheransUniversity of Göttingen alumniMembers of the Bavarian Academy of SciencesRecipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)Academic staff of the University of GöttingenMembers of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and HumanitiesMental calculatorsCorresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of SciencesOptical physicists18th-century German astronomersLinear algebraistsZeno's paradoxes
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the paradoxes attributed to Zeno of Elea (c490-430BC) which have stimulated mathematicians and philosophers for millennia.
22 September 2016
Also featuring: Barbara Sattler, James Warren
Euclid's Elements
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the content, history and impact of Euclid's Elements, the mathematical text book from the ancient world, originating in Alexandria in about 300BC.
28 April 2016
Also featuring: Serafina Cuomo, June Barrow-Green
Fermat's Last Theorem
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Fermat's Last Theorem, a mathematical puzzle which took more than three hundred and fifty years to solve.
25 October 2012
Also featuring: Vicky Neale, Samir Siksek
Random and Pseudorandom
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss mathematical randomness and pseudorandomness, ideas important to cryptography, statistics and weather forecasting.
13 January 2011
Also featuring: Colva Roney-Dougal, Timothy Gowers
Imaginary numbers
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss imaginary numbers - important mathematical phenomena which provide us with useful tools for understanding the world.
23 September 2010
Also featuring: Ian Stewart, Caroline Series
The Unintended Consequences of Mathematics
Melvyn Bragg and guests explore the unintended consequences of mathematical discoveries, from alternating current to predicting the path of asteroids.
11 February 2010
Also featuring: John D. Barrow, Colva Roney-Dougal
Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the mathematician Kurt Godel and his work at the very limits of maths.
9 October 2008
Also featuring: John D. Barrow, Philip Welch
Probability
Melvyn Bragg discusses the strange mathematics of probability from renaissance gambling to chaos theory.
29 May 2008
Also featuring: Colva Roney-Dougal, Ian Stewart
The Fibonacci Sequence
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Fibonacci Sequence, an infinite string of numbers to be found in Renaissance paintings, modern architecture and the structure of flowers.
29 November 2007
Also featuring: Jackie Stedall, Ron Knott
Symmetry
Melvyn Bragg discusses symmetry in art and nature. From snowflakes and butterflies to the music of Bach and the poems of Pushkin.
19 April 2007
Also featuring: Fay Dowker, Ian Stewart
The Poincaré conjecture
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Poincaré Conjecture, a puzzle that may explain the shape of the universe.
2 November 2006
Also featuring: June Barrow-Green, Ian Stewart
Mathematics and Music
Melvyn Bragg discusses the mathematical structures that lie within the heart of music. From mathematical formulations used to create early music to the music of the 20th century.
25 May 2006
Also featuring: Robin Wilson, Ruth Tatlow
Prime Numbers
Melvyn Bragg discusses prime numbers, their still mysterious patterning and the secrets might hold about the nature of atoms.
12 January 2006
Also featuring: Robin Wilson, Jackie Stedall