Aperiodical News Roundup – September 2024

Here’s a round-up of mathematical news stories from last month.

Maths Research News

A claimed proof has been published by Vigleik Angeltveit and Brendan D. McKay that the Ramsey number R(5,5) is at most 46. More detail can be found in this blog post about the discovery. (via Joshua Cooper)

According to this Quanta article, a team of Ukrainian mathematicians have made progress on an old conjecture about solids of constant width in higher dimensions.

Andrii Arman (left) and Andriy Prymak, two of the four mathematicians on the team

The Foundation Mathematics in Open Access (MathOA) has issued a call for proposals for a fund to start new diamond open access journals. (via Timothy Gowers)

Maths Political News

The UK government has withdrawn £6m grant funding intended to establish a national academy for mathematical sciences. The official response on the original funding call says:

The  Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has concluded this competition without awarding grant funding to support the establishment of a new National Academy focused on Mathematical Sciences. 

The government recognises the essential, valuable contributions of the mathematical sciences in science, engineering, innovation and growth in the UK and will explore how best to provide support and promote mathematics without supporting the creation of a new National Academy focused on Mathematical Sciences.

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

(via the Campaign for the Mathematical Sciences on Twitter)

The Maths Horizons Project, an independent rapid review of maths curriculum and assessment in England, has launched. According to their website,

The Maths Horizons Project will bring together a group of teachers and others experts to analyse options for maths curriculum and assessment. We will consult widely, including primary and secondary schools, colleges, universities and businesses.

From the website at mathshorizons.uk

(via Kevin Houston)

Other News

The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications has issued a collection of historic articles from the archives of their in-house journal Mathematics Today, each with a new introduction.

And finally: Richard Hamilton, whose work in geometric analysis laid the groundwork for Perelman’s proof of the Poincaré conjecture, has died. (via Gabe Khan)