37 This Goes All The Way to the Top with David Robert Grimes

They Grow Up So Fast: You know that feeling. You look and there are only a few. You turn around and then it's a hundred and then a million. It's growing so fast you can't even count. But it's perfectly natural. It's Exponential Growth. And author of the Maths of Life and... by The Function Room

33 min listen

The Math(s) Doesn't Care About Your Feelings: This week we meet a man who loves maps, elections and naturally Eurovision. We dip our toe in the recent presidential election and find out how you can use maths to see if someone is really trying to steal an election. Not through mysterious bundles of... by The Function Room

57 min listen

Welcome to the Fold: This time we’re folding. We’re creasing. We’re origami-ing. As Ruby and I make two birds and two planes, I find out a little bit about the world of folding. Even with those small things we made we still got the feeling we were playing with something... by The Function Room

67 min listen

Model Behaviour: You've probably heard it mentioned out of the corner of your ear. Mathematical Modelling. What does it look like, how does it work, where would you even start? And why is a Dublin mathematician modelling the results of electrical currents in human... by The Function Room

35 min listen

Spilling the T.: "Statistics? Really?! Listen Colm I supported you on that first episode because I thought it was a fad and I didn't want to be the one to shut down your dreams but seriously, man... this has gone too far"No hear me out! In this episode I'll be talking... by The Function Room

51 min listen

A Sum of Funny.: A special Christmas episode recorded in an actual theatre. With actual people. Just sound technicians as events are still banned due to me being TOO FUNNY. This was a fun episode with fellow comedian and fellow former engineer Eleanor Tiernan. It was... by The Function Room

45 min listen

The Solace of Quantum: This time on the Function Room. It's the little things. The really little things. As Ruby(5) and Lily(3) theorise about the computers a fairy might use, I talk to UCD's John Sheekey about Quantum Computers. I got thinking about it before Christmas when... by The Function Room

45 min listen

A Chip Off The New Block: This time on the function room: My guide to helping people think you’re a great parent. While someone else does the job.The secret? It’s numberblocks. The BAFTA winning animated CBEEBIES TV show for 3 to 6 year old children to get them interested in... by The Function Room

43 min listen

All We Hear Is: Radio Pulsar: This week on the function room, my guest is Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell, astrophysicist from Northern Ireland who, as a postgraduate student, discovered a NEW TYPE OF STAR. That’s like discovering A NEW TYPE OF STAR Jocelyn was a postgraduate... by The Function Room

36 min listen

Miracle Grow: This time, it's about Growth and De-Growth. De-What? What-Growth? A term that's been around for a while but it's obviously being talked about more if an eejit like me is throwing it around at dinner-parties. (or I will when they come back)My guest is... by The Function Room

79 min listen

Mental Arithmetic: It's All In Your Head: My guest is Rob Eastaway. Author of many books which make maths more interesting and accessible. He also has a podcast called Puzzling Maths with Andrew Jeffrey which you should check out if by some miracle you’re not getting all your maths vitamins... by The Function Room

38 min listen

Back Once Again For The Renegade Masters Student: After a long hiatus, the function room is back and for the first episode, comedian and erstwhile mathsy type Dara O'Briain is the guest. We chat about all sorts, hard sums, looking at the stars, the fantasy of one day going back to learn 'just for the... by The Function Room

60 min listen

Galaxy Brain: My guest is Dr Eloise Stevance an astrophysicist working in Auckland, New Zealand. We’re talking at the same time but on different days of the week. Which is pretty cool.We talk TikTok viral videos, bald headed football linesmen in Scotland being... by The Function Room

41 min listen

The Matrix Revised: Okay enough messing around, this week we get into the Matrix. Okay not that matrix. The mathematical matrix. But this one is way more powerful than a dystopian future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped inside a simulated reality. That’s piddly.... by The Function Room

46 min listen

Boyle Points - the story of a gas man: This week Robert Boyle, born in Ireland in the 17th century was one of the world's great scientists. I'm talking about him with Eoin Gill, Eoin Gill is a director of Calmast STEM Engagement Centre at South East Technological University, who likes... by The Function Room

39 min listen

The Ps of Queues: Welcome back to the Function Room, And this time, it’s about QUEUES. This has been a summer of queues. A flurry of covid tests and two vaccinations have meant a brush with Big Queue. Which got me thinking - What makes a good queue or a bad one? And is... by The Function Room

57 min listen

Algorithm and Blues: This time on the function room, advertising algorithms start to annoy Ruby so I decided to find out a bit more. And who better to talk to than someone the New York Times described as one of the most valuable observers of Big Data. She is American... by The Function Room

45 min listen

The Weather Forecast: The Original Cloud Computing: My guest is Alan O’Reilly, about his hobby weather forecasting. I first met him when he was on my RTE Radio Show Colm O’Regan Wants A Word. But time constraints meant I don’t think we got to talk for the recommended daily weather talk intake of two... by The Function Room

49 min listen

23 What the Butler Saw with John Butler: John Butler is a mathematician turned computational neuroscientist, a professor of maths and statistics at TU Dublin who looks at the brain mathematically and tries to figure out why the brain does what it does We talk about the senses, why it’s good... by The Function Room

58 min listen

Where Is There a Will?: In this episode after Ruby makes up her mind, we’re talking about the mathematics of free will. It's recorded at the Cat Laughs Comedy Summer Series in Kilkenny, Ireland. A special series of shows to reintroduce everyone to the vague concept of Going... by The Function Room

58 min listen

Some Idle ChatGPT: Welcome back to the function room with me Colm O’Regan. This week, it's ChatGPT. The latest thing that makes people starting dropping the phrase AI into small talk. ChatGPT and all the Ais are of huge interest to my guest. Conrad Wolfram. He’s kind of... by The Function Room

53 min listen

24 Carbon of Contention: My guest is Dr Muireann Lynch of the economic and social research institute here in Ireland. She very carefully guides me an idiot on my first tour of the c-word. Carbon. How much it costs to use it, how much it costs, the maths of optimisation,... by The Function Room

52 min listen

26 Chums' Pedigree: My guest is author of Chums, Simon Kuper about how a small cabal of Oxford chums managed to take over British politics. And from his book just how crap an Oxford and Eton education could be and you can still make it to the top. Along the way we learn... by The Function Room

40 min listen

29 The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: The maths of symmetry.Hi it’s me Colm O’Regan. The function room is back after a little summer break and my guest is Pauline Mellon, professor of mathematics at UCDShe wants to talk about symmetry and I’m glad she did. She brings me on... by The Function Room

50 min listen

30 Anyone's Guess: this week in the function room, It's Anyone's Guess - the maths of guessworkDavid Malone of Maynooth University and the Hamilton Institute. I ride the wave of ignorance through some big topics like Information theory, Entropy, what makes a... by The Function Room

60 min listen

28 Things Fall Apart: The baffling arithmetic of Dereliction. I talk to Jude Sherry and Frank O’Connor of Derelict Ireland who ask the very simple question about an equation that makes no sense: Why is it that there are tens of thousands of people who need a home and tens... by The Function Room

43 min listen

#25 Crime Numbers: The maths of Criminology. With Ian Marder, Assistant Professor of Criminology at Maynooth University. We talk about statistics and randomized control studies, and bias and how crime always seems worse than it is, why you should get on with your... by The Function Room

51 min listen

#21 Drawing by Numbers with Ayliean MacDonald by The Function Room

49 min listen

37 This Goes All The Way to the Top with David Robert Grimes: This week we look at the maths of conspiracy theories with physicist, cancer researcher, science writer author of the Award-winning The Irrational Ape why flawed logic puts us all at risk. how to tell if one most likely isn't true, a scary thing... by The Function Room

60 min listen

34 Sea Change with Joanna Donnelly: My guest is Joanna Donnelly meteorologist and author of From Malin Head to Mizen Head, a lovely book about the almost meditative experience that is Irish Sea Area Forecast. Hers is the voice Irish radio listeners will hear last thing at night and... by The Function Room

33 min listen

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37 This Goes All The Way to the Top with David Robert Grimes

37 This Goes All The Way to the Top with David Robert Grimes

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