Explainers
JUNIPER is very pleased to collaborate with the fantastic team at Plus Magazine. Articles and podcasts produced by Rachel Thomas and Marianne Freiberger at Plus provide an explainer on the key mathematical modelling work done by JUNIPER members to a general audience. On this page you will find explainers to key epidemic modelling concepts as well as areas of current research. Full details of all content produced with Plus is available here.
What is the generation time of a disease?
To work out how a disease will spread you need to know the time between infections.
e for exponential
At the beginning of an epidemic the number of infected people grows exponentially. But why does the number e appear in descriptions of this growth?
Maths in a minute: "R nought" and herd immunity
What is herd immunity and what does it have to do with a number called R0?
Maths in a minute: The SIR model
Find out the basics of the SIR model, the basis most disease modellers use to understand the spread of a disease through a population.
Maths in a minute: R – the reproduction ratio
The reproduction ratio, R, is one of the most important numbers in epidemiology. Find out what it means in this very easy introduction.
Maths in half a minute: Exponential growth
What do we mean when we say that something grows exponentially? Find out in this very easy introduction, suitable for anyone curious to know more!
When being wrong is right
What can we learn from the COVID crisis about finding consensus?
Understanding waning immunity
What can we expect from a disease for which natural or vaccine induced immunity wanes?