News and Press Coverage

Pesquisador brasileiro transformou os escândalos de Brasília em redes – e usou algoritmos para descobrir quais serão os envolvidos num futuro próximo. Haroldo Ribeiro, professor da Universidade Estadual de Maringá (UEM), desenvolveu um método matemático capaz de prever, com 25% de precisão, quais figuras públicas serão acusadas de envolvimento em escândalos de corrupção nos próximos anos – e não descarta que ele possa ser útil para a justiça no futuro, em uma versão aperfeiçoada.

According to the World Bank, corruption scandals siphon more than $2 trillion per year from the global economy, making corruption one of the major causes of slow economic growth and socioeconomic inequality.

Succeeding in the male-dominated science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines can be very challenging for female faculty. Now, a Northwestern University study of the collaboration patterns of STEM faculty publishing 4 November in the open-access journal PLOS Biology has found that the playing fields in some disciplines are not as level as they first appear.

It is well known that when a team plays home its success rate will increase. For example, in baseball and hockey, the boost is about 8%; in international football, the increase can be 25%.

Análises estatísticas de campeonatos de esportes coletivos como o futebol já comprovaram que o fenômeno da “vantagem de jogar em casa” existe mesmo. Jogar em sua própria arena não é garantia de vitória, mas tende a ajudar.

A wide range of indicators like wages, patents, and R&D employment increase with the population of cities. This behaviour is often referred to as urban scaling. The interesting aspect of urban scaling is that it does not follow a straight line, but rather increases exponentially.

Desde 2003 uma equipe liderada pelo físico Geoffrey West, do Instituto Santa Fé, nos Estados Unidos, acumula evidências de que o desenvolvimento das cidades obedece a certas regularidades estatísticas. É uma espécie de física do crescimento urbano, regido por fórmulas matemáticas relativamente simples – as chamadas leis de escala ou potência – que permitem fazer previsões sobre as propriedades de uma cidade.

(Inside Science) – Similar rules may govern the squeaking of an old hardwood floor, cracking of a dried-out lump of charcoal, and shearing of our planet’s crust during an earthquake. Two recent studies in the journal Physical Review Letters have found that all of these stressful situations share the same underlying mathematical patterns.

Two upcoming papers in Physical Review Letters shed a light on the way that scientists can use analogies to understand fundamental physical processes. Some analogies can be just plain barmy, as with Newton’s analogy between the number of notes in a musical scale and the number of colours in the rainbow (see my very first Mini Story, and also my recent paper in Nature Vol.

A mathematical formula could predict how many murders will occur as the population in Brazil increases, say scientists. The formula can also be applied to other factors such as unemployment and literacy, they claim.