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My research interests are network motifs and complex networks;
boolean networks and discrete dynamics;
and inferring genes and gene-gene interactions.
I have also written a couple of books: The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie and, more recently, The Man's Book.
Mathematics of Conkers
Conkers is a popular game played with the nuts of the common horse-chestnut tree (conkers), in which pairs of players take
turns swiping each other's conker with their own until one conker is broken.
Each conker is assigned a score as follows.
All new conkers start with a score of 1.
Each time a conker beats another conker, it adds to its score the score of the defeated.
In Single elimination competition, we study a simple model of competition in which each player has a fixed strength. Randomly selected pairs of players compete and the stronger one wins. We show that the best indicator of future success is not the number of wins but a player's wealth: the accumulated wealth of all defeated players. We calculate statistics of a conker with a given score and offer advice on strategy.
The Man's Book 2008
The Man's Book
is the authoritative handbook of men's customs, habits and pursuits -
a vade mecum for modern-day manliness.
At a time when the sexes are muddled and masculinity is marginalized,
The Man's Book unabashedly celebrates being male. Chaps, cads, blokes and bounders,
rejoice: The Man's Book will bring you back to wear you belong.
The 2008 edition of The Man's Book, published on 19 September, 2007, has been expanded, revised and updated.