Monthly Archives: September 2015

The Interplanetary Lab

In the latest episode of the Global Lab podcast, I talk to Dr Nick Attree about his work studying Saturn using photos from NASA’s Cassini orbiter. Nick tells me about a new feature, called a mini-jet, that he has discovered in Saturn’s outermost ring. We also discussed the amazing recent photos of Pluto sent back by the New Horizons spacecraft.

Nick had only handed in the final version of his PhD thesis a few days before the interview, so I think we were the first to officially call him Doctor!

Listen to the episode via the Global Lab page.

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Sequence Challenge – SOLVED!

After 19 days and 55 rule guesses, the sequence challenge was SOLVED on Saturday morning.

PUZZLE
SOLUTION

The not-so-fabulous mystery prize will be revealed tomorrow. The image is a clue to its identity.

UPDATE: The mystery prize is now revealed at the bottom of the solution page.
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Introducing a new sequence challenge

OK, so today I’m unveiling a new maths puzzle that, all being well, will run every day until someone discovers the solution. There is even a (very modest) ‘mystery prize’, which I will send to the winner (provided that they do not live somewhere so remote that the postage charges would be ridiculous).

The puzzle is a simple sequence, to which one term will be added each day. Your challenge is simply to determine the mathematical rule behind the sequence.

Click here to see the sequence

I am not really sure how difficult this will be (quite challenging, I think), so we could be here for a long, long time… or equally, it could all be over in a couple of days. Or maybe there will be no guesses at all and we will have to quietly forget all about it. Whichever, it’s all good.