Double Maths First Thing is singing powerful songs Hello! My name is Colin and I am a mathematician on a mission to spread the joy, delight and frustration of doing maths. Welcome to episode 50! That’s excitement, not factorial. I enjoyed the latest episode (other sources available) of A Problem Squared, to the point that…
10 years of the “Is this prime?” game – time to analyse more results

Can you believe it’s been 10 years since I made the “Is this prime?” game? I sort of can, because I set myself a reminder about it in my calendar. Back in 2016, the game had been played 350,000 times and I wrote a post looking at the collected data. 10 years later, I thought…
Double Maths First Thing: Issue 4F
Double Maths First Thing is remembering how icosahedra work. Hello! My name is Colin and I am a mathematician on a mission to spread joy, delight and just satisfaction in doing maths. This week’s excitement was being mentioned (twice!) in a Stand Up Maths video – it’s embarrassingly recently that I realised the acronym is…
Carnival of Maths 249

The next issue of the Carnival of Mathematics, rounding up blog posts from the month of February 2026, is now online at Tony’s Maths Blog. The Carnival rounds up maths blog posts from all over the internet, including some from our own Aperiodical. See our Carnival of Mathematics page for more information.
Aperiodical News Roundup – February 2026

Here’s a short round-up of mathematical and maths-adjacent news from this month. The LMS are seeking Outreach Lecturers, who must work in UK HE mathematics, and will receive a two-year post during which they’re expected to deliver talks to a minimum of 4 schools around the UK each year. The talks should be free to…
Double Maths First Thing: Issue 4E
Double Maths First Thing is spinning plates Hello! My name is Colin and I am a mathematician on a mission to spread the joy and delight of doing maths. This week’s “oo!” moment was this lovely observation by Ruud de Rooij, followed by an “oh wow!” when I figured out the induction step of the…
Prime time: now with annoying notifications!

A while ago I added a clock to my “Is this prime?” website: it shows you when the Unix time is a prime number of milliseconds. Earlier today I had the thought that it could send you a notification when it’s prime time, so you won’t miss out even if you’re not staring at the…