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Episode details

Radio 4,06 Sep 2009,15 mins

The Mathematicians

The Tribes of Science

Available for over a year

Series in which Peter Curran visits members of the many and varied disciplines of science, from astronomy to zoology, to explore their habitat, customs, rituals and beliefs. Peter meets the mathematicians of the Isaac Newton Institute of Mathematics in Cambridge. There are blackboards in the lifts and in the loos to encourage communication between visiting professors, but not everyone shares their mathematical insight. A few members of the mathematical tribe do wear the same t-shirt for six months and it's often inside-out, but not all the stereotypes hold true. Among these mathematicians, Peter finds passion, humour and an enviable sense of purpose.

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