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Living Proof: the Isaac Newton Institute podcast

Living Proof: the Isaac Newton Institute podcast

By: Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences
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The Isaac Newton Institute is the world's foremost mathematical research centre. Living Proof aims to highlight the diverse people and interconnected topics linked to its many activities. Interviewees range from visiting academics and lecturers to mathematicians, other scientists, musicians, artists, students, and prominent figures within the University of Cambridge and beyond. The podcast typically involves mathematical themes, but is specifically aimed at a general audience. The focus is on the subjects being interviewed and the social stories they have to tell, not just on the significance and details of the research they may be undertaking. We hope there is interest and inspiration here for everyone.- The Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences (UK) is an international research centre based in Cambridge, UK. A part of the University of Cambridge, it has been hosting research programmes on mathematical themes since July 1992.Visit > www.newton.ac.uk/news/ini-podcast© 2025 Living Proof: the Isaac Newton Institute podcast Mathematics Science
Episodes
  • #73 Building digital hearts
    Nov 24 2025

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    Imagine if your doctor had a digital model of your heart, personalised to you and updated with your latest medical information. This isn't science fiction – this revolutionary healthcare is being tested now. In this podcast we speak to Steven Niederer, who leads the CVDNet project developing and testing these ideas, and his colleague Richard Wilkinson, from the University of Nottingham.

    Richard is one of the organisers of the long research programme, Representing, calibrating & leveraging prediction uncertainty from statistics to machine learning (RCL), held earlier this year at the Isaac Newton Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (INI).

    We first spoke to Steven back in 2019 when he helped organise the Fickle Heart programme at the INI. In this podcast, Richard and Steven tell us about digital twins, digital hearts, and how the RCL programme and CVDNet build on the work started back in 2019 with the Fickle Heart programme.

    You can find out more about some of the ideas discussed in this podcast in these short introductions:

    • Maths in a Minute: Mathematical models
    • Maths in a Minute: Differential equations
    • Maths in Minute: Machine learning
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    25 mins
  • #72 Living Proof: Céline Broeckaert and Frank Verstraete
    Nov 12 2025

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    In this episode of Living Proof, we speak with Céline and Frank about their book: Why nobody understands quantum physics - and everyone needs to know something about it. They share insights into their writing journey and how each of their backgrounds contributed to the final project.

    We met Céline and Frank at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cambridge, where Frank is co-organising the research programme Quantum field theory with boundaries, impurities, and defects.

    "I have learnt that even if you are not a master in mathematics and science you are still able to grasp the essence."

    This is Céline Broeckaert talking, believe it or not, about the famously difficult theory of quantum mechanics. Céline knows what she's talking about. She's not a physicist, in fact she's a Romance languages scholar, author and playwright. Yet she's written a book about quantum mechanics together with her physicist husband Frank Verstraete, Leigh Trapnell Professor of Quantum Physics at the University of Cambridge. The book is called Why nobody understands quantum physics - and everyone needs to know something about it. And it's good timing: quantum mechanics celebrates its 100th birthday this year.

    See here for an article Plus Magazine published previously about Frank's work.

    For a brief introduction to quantum mechanics see A ridiculously short introduction to some very basic quantum mechanics. To find out more about the overlap of maths and art, see here.

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    27 mins
  • #71 Moustapha Fall
    Oct 22 2025

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    In this episode of the Living Proof podcast we're delighted to meet Moustapha Fall. Moustapha is the Center President of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in Senegal and winner of a prestigious Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians from Developing Countries. He also plays an important role on the international stage as Member-at-Large of the Executive Committee of the International Mathematical Union.

    Moustapha talks to us about about the amazing institution that is AIMS, about his outreach activities and advice for budding mathematicians, and about the challenges that face mathematicians in sub-Saharan Africa.

    You can find the IMU-ICIAM report on fraudulent publishing, which Moustapha mentions in the podcast, here. The same team of authors has also drawn up recommendations on how to fight fraudulent publishing.

    We met Moustapha when he visited the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cambridge.

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    25 mins
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