Bells and 'Burdens'

Bells, Motels and Permutation Groups

This article is about the mathematics of ringing the changes. We describe the mathematics which arises from a real-world activity, that of ringing the changes on bells. We present Rankin’s solution of one of the famous old problems in the subject.

Groups and Bells

We describe the mathematics which arises from a real-world activity, that of ringing the changes on bells. We present Rankin's solution of one of the famous old problems in the subject, and some open questions.

Foot and mouth alarm bells

Cold, season, and incidence of bells palsy

Bell’s palsy is a relatively common disease characterized by the sudden onset of unilateral facial paralysis. Using a centralized system that contains demographic data, the authors estimated rates, trends, and demographic risk of Bell’s palsy during a 2-year period. There were 140 incident cases of Bell’s palsy among patients referring to private clinics (a total of 6500 patients). The crude in...

New alarm bells

Some species do appear to practise construction skills — birds in particular — and to require some mental flexibility in starting the process. But ultimately, animals build the way they do because they are genetically programmed to do so, Hansell concludes. But evolution can lead to surprising results. Hansell notes that most of our closest primate relatives create little more than temporary sh...