Haven’t had much time to compose a blog entry as I’ve been trying to organize the final bits of advertising and uploading for the DVD. I’m hoping I will have a boxful of copies by the end of the week ready for the launch at the CETL-MSOR Conference at the start of September – I’m giving my talk on the 6th. Also, I’ve been trying to get some research done which at the moment involves finishing two papers and trying to understand a whole new area of mathematics (more on that some other time). Furthermore, I’ve got two PhD students who will be submitting their theses this coming year so I have to read some drafts to make sure they have results worthy of publication. Hence if you think academics are not busy during university holidays then think again. Anyhow, I seem to have written more than I expected. All I wanted to show you was a video: The Antikythera Mechanism is fascinating example of the sophistication of ancient Greek/Roman mathematics and engineering. A geared “clockwork” mechanism from around the first century BC is almost too impossible to believe. Here’s a video about it: Decoding the Heavens: Solving the Mystery of the World’s First Computer – Jo Marchant from Gresham College on...

Today Google are celebrating Pierre de Fermat‘s birthday, see www.google.co.uk/. If you are viewing this in the future, then look for it in the cache of Google...

BBC Four is showing a series on statistics called the Joy of Stats presented by Hans Rosling (above). It is available on the i-Player (in regions that can use i-Player and for 7 days from transmission). You can view the programme on its web page:...

Marcus du Sautoy’s Radio 4 history programme, A Brief History of Mathematics, is being repeated this week. It’s on air at 23:30 and 23:45 (two programmes per day). It’s also available via the iPlayer for a very limited time, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00srz5b. [UPDATE: The programmes are available as podcasts: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/maths.] Bonus: If you are a student at Leeds, then you can find the DVD of his Story of Maths in the Edward Boyle Library: http://lib.leeds.ac.uk/record=b3030457~S4. We also have a recording of his 2006 Royal Institution Christmas lectures, The Num8er My5teries:...