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Is it rational to believe in a god? The most famous rational argument in favour of belief was made by Blaise Pascal, but what happens if we apply modern game theory to the question?

Guilt, so some people have suggested, is what makes us nice. When we do someone a favour or choose not to exploit someone vulnerable, we do it because we fear the guilt we'd feel otherwise. A team of neuroscientists, psychologists and economists have this month produced some new results in this area, using a model from psychological game theory.

The 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics goes to two unusual economists

José-Manuel Rey unveils the curse of attractiveness

Game theorists model the evolution of trust and trustworthiness

José-Manuel Rey revisits a scene of the film A beautiful Mind.

Ground breaking work in uncovering optimal funding mechanisms in financial markets

Two game theorists share prize for their analyses of conflict and cooperation

Mathematicians in search of romantic success

In 1997 Garry Kasparov, then World Champion, lost an entire chess match to the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue, and it is only a matter of time before the machines become absolutely unbeatable. But the human brain, as Lewis Dartnell explains, is still able to put up a good fight by exploiting computers' weaknesses.

Combinatorial Game Theory is a powerful tool for analysing mathematical games. Lewis Dartnell explains how the technique can be used to analyse games such as Twentyone and Nim, and even some chess endgames.