Latest news with #RichardTaylor
RNZ News
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
Wētā Workshop's new Hobbit game Tales of the Shire a 'cosy' escape from the world
Just when you thought the Lord of the Rings product train had run out of steam, Wētā Workshop has more. On Wednesday it released a new video game that allows players to build their own home in a Hobbit village in Middle Earth. Tales of the Shire is billed as a "cosy game" providing a calmer, more meditative experience than the frenetic pace of traditional video games. Players create Hobbit characters - from choosing the possessions that adorn their Hobbit-hole homes to selecting the extent of hair on their little feet. The Hobbit avatars are moved about a picturesque Middle Earth world buffeted by seasonal winds and guided by birds as they tend to their gardens, fish, cook and interact with other townsfolk. Tales of the Shire is billed as a "cosy game". Photo: Supplied / Wētā Workshop Wētā Workshop founder Sir Richard Taylor said as the world emerged from the height of the pandemic, it made sense to create a game that was a departure from the conflict and drama that fuelled much of the Lord of the Rings films. "Tolkien described The Shire as Warwickshire circa 1890 type of world. This is pastoral England, this is beautiful days of slashing down the corn in the fields and harvesting, making hearty meals for your family," Taylor said. He said the game's look was purposely designed to emphasise the beauty and calm of the idyllic setting that was home to the Hobbits. "We wanted to create a wonderfully, painterly watercolour world so it felt like you were stepping into a living picture, dotted with trees and hobbit holes. I think it looks beautiful and it seems to fit perfectly for Tolkien's imagination of what the Shire should be," Taylor said. Wētā Workshop founder Sir Richard Taylor. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Game studio director Tony Lawrence said at its peak, 54 people collaborated on the game, working out of Wētā's Miramar workshop as well as from Italy, Australia and California. The game's creators were able to draw on the studio's 25 years of bringing Middle Earth to life to add authenticity to the settings and activities players encountered, he said. "If there's a question about Lord of the Rings we've quite a few experts just lurking around the place that can help us with anything. If we wanted to understand how a character might make a sword, having a master sword [maker] onsite is pretty good to come watch. They're the kind of things that you can't do anywhere else in any other studio," Lawrence said. Game studio director Tony Lawrence. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Tony Lawrence said the government's rebate for game developers was an important factor in helping Wētā take the time to develop the game's detail and depth. New Zealand Game Developers Association executive director Joy Keene said the scheme was reversing a trend of local game developers heading offshore to work. "It's been absolutely essential to studios - especially studios like Wētā Workshop - where the rebate has assisted them to hire more staff, pay staff more to keep them rather than those staff going offshore, and given them some stability to actually develop these games," Keene said. At its peak, 54 people collaborated on the game. Photo: Supplied / Wētā Workshop Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
WIRED
2 days ago
- Science
- WIRED
A ‘Grand Unified Theory' of Math Just Got a Little Bit Closer
Jul 27, 2025 7:00 AM By extending the scope of a key insight behind Fermat's Last Theorem, four mathematicians have made great strides toward building a unifying theory of mathematics. Illustration: Nash Weerasekera for Quanta Magazine The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. In 1994, an earthquake of a proof shook up the mathematical world. The mathematician Andrew Wiles had finally settled Fermat's Last Theorem, a central problem in number theory that had remained open for over three centuries. The proof didn't just enthral mathematicians—it made the front page of The New York Times. But to accomplish it, Wiles (with help from the mathematician Richard Taylor) first had to prove a more subtle intermediate statement—one with implications that extended beyond Fermat's puzzle. This intermediate proof involved showing that an important kind of equation called an elliptic curve can always be tied to a completely different mathematical object called a modular form. Wiles and Taylor had essentially unlocked a portal between disparate mathematical realms, revealing that each looks like a distorted mirror image of the other. If mathematicians want to understand something about an elliptic curve, Wiles and Taylor showed, they can move into the world of modular forms, find and study their object's mirror image, then carry their conclusions back with them. This connection between worlds, called 'modularity,' didn't just enable Wiles to prove Fermat's Last Theorem. Mathematicians soon used it to make progress on all sorts of previously intractable problems. Modularity also forms the foundation of the Langlands program, a sweeping set of conjectures aimed at developing a 'grand unified theory' of mathematics. If the conjectures are true, then all sorts of equations beyond elliptic curves will be similarly tethered to objects in their mirror realm. Mathematicians will be able to jump between the worlds as they please to answer even more questions. But proving the correspondence between elliptic curves and modular forms has been incredibly difficult. Many researchers thought that establishing some of these more complicated correspondences would be impossible. Now, a team of four mathematicians has proved them wrong. In February, the quartet finally succeeded in extending the modularity connection from elliptic curves to more complicated equations called abelian surfaces. The team—Frank Calegari of the University of Chicago, George Boxer and Toby Gee of Imperial College London, and Vincent Pilloni of the French National Center for Scientific Research—proved that every abelian surface belonging to a certain major class can always be associated to a modular form. Toby Gee, Frank Calegari, and Vincent Pilloni, along with George Boxer (not pictured), spent nearly a decade on the proof. Photographs: Courtesy of Toby Gee; Jayne Ion; MC 'We mostly believe that all the conjectures are true, but it's so exciting to see it actually realized,' said Ana Caraiani, a mathematician at Imperial College London. 'And in a case that you really thought was going to be out of reach.' It's just the beginning of a hunt that will take years—mathematicians ultimately want to show modularity for every abelian surface. But the result can already help answer many open questions, just as proving modularity for elliptic curves opened up all sorts of new research directions. Through the Looking Glass The elliptic curve is a particularly fundamental type of equation that uses just two variables— x and y . If you graph its solutions, you'll see what appear to be simple curves. But these solutions are interrelated in rich and complicated ways, and they show up in many of number theory's most important questions. The Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture, for instance—one of the toughest open problems in math, with a $1 million reward for whoever proves it first—is about the nature of solutions to elliptic curves. Elliptic curves can be hard to study directly. So sometimes mathematicians prefer to approach them from a different angle. That's where modular forms come in. A modular form is a highly symmetric function that appears in an ostensibly separate area of mathematical study called analysis. Because they exhibit so many nice symmetries, modular forms can be easier to work with. At first, these objects seem as though they shouldn't be related. But Taylor and Wiles' proof revealed that every elliptic curve corresponds to a specific modular form. They have certain properties in common—for instance, a set of numbers that describes the solutions to an elliptic curve will also crop up in its associated modular form. Mathematicians can therefore use modular forms to gain new insights into elliptic curves. But mathematicians think Taylor and Wiles' modularity theorem is just one instance of a universal fact. There's a much more general class of objects beyond elliptic curves. And all of these objects should also have a partner in the broader world of symmetric functions like modular forms. This, in essence, is what the Langlands program is all about. An elliptic curve has only two variables— x and y —so it can be graphed on a flat sheet of paper. But if you add another variable, z , you get a curvy surface that lives in three-dimensional space. This more complicated object is called an abelian surface, and as with elliptic curves, its solutions have an ornate structure that mathematicians want to understand. It seemed natural that abelian surfaces should correspond to more complicated types of modular forms. But the extra variable makes them much harder to construct and their solutions much harder to find. Proving that they, too, satisfy a modularity theorem seemed completely out of reach. 'It was a known problem not to think about, because people have thought about it and got stuck,' Gee said. But Boxer, Calegari, Gee, and Pilloni wanted to try. Finding a Bridge All four mathematicians were involved in research on the Langlands program, and they wanted to prove one of these conjectures for 'an object that actually turns up in real life, rather than some weird thing,' Calegari said. Not only do abelian surfaces show up in real life—the real life of a mathematician, that is—but proving a modularity theorem about them would open new mathematical doors. 'There are lots of things you can do if you have this statement that you have no chance of doing otherwise,' Calegari said. 'After a coffee, we would always joke that we had to go back to the mine.' The mathematicians started working together in 2016, hoping to follow the same steps that Taylor and Wiles had in their proof about elliptic curves. But every one of those steps was much more complicated for abelian surfaces. So they focused on a particular type of abelian surface, called an ordinary abelian surface, that was easier to work with. For any such surface, there's a set of numbers that describes the structure of its solutions. If they could show that the same set of numbers could also be derived from a modular form, they'd be done. The numbers would serve as a unique tag, allowing them to pair each of their abelian surfaces with a modular form. The problem was that while these numbers are straightforward to compute for a given abelian surface, mathematicians don't know how to construct a modular form with the exact same tag. Modular forms are simply too difficult to build when the requirements are so constrained. 'The objects you're looking for, you don't really know they exist,' Pilloni said. Instead, the mathematicians showed that it would be enough to construct a modular form whose numbers matched those of the abelian surface in a weaker sense. The modular form's numbers only had to be equivalent in the realm of what's known as clock arithmetic. Imagine a clock: If the hour hand starts at 10 and four hours pass, the clock will point to 2. But clock arithmetic can be done with any number, not just (as in the case of real-world clocks) the number 12. Boxer, Calegari, Gee, and Pilloni only needed to show that their two sets of numbers matched when they used a clock that goes up to 3. This meant that, for a given abelian surface, the mathematicians had more flexibility when it came to building the associated modular form. But even this proved too difficult. Then they stumbled on a trove of modular forms whose corresponding numbers were easy to calculate—so long as they defined their numbers according to a clock that goes up to 2. But the abelian surface needed one that goes up to 3. The mathematicians had an idea of how to roughly bridge these two different clocks. But they didn't know how to make the connection airtight so they could find a true match for the abelian surface in the world of modular forms. Then a new piece of mathematics appeared that turned out to be just what they needed. Lue Pan's work in a seemingly disparate area of number theory turned out to be essential. Photograph: Will Crow/ Princeton University Surprise Help In 2020, a number theorist named Lue Pan posted a proof about modular forms that didn't initially seem connected to the quartet's problem. But they soon recognized that the techniques he'd developed were surprisingly relevant. 'I didn't expect that,' Pan said. After years of regular meetings, mostly on Zoom, the mathematicians started to make progress adapting Pan's techniques, but major hurdles remained. Then, in the summer of 2023, Boxer, Gee, and Pilloni saw a conference in Bonn, Germany, as the perfect opportunity to come together. The only problem was that Calegari was supposed to travel to China at the same time to give a talk. But a difficult visit to the Chinese consulate in Chicago made him reconsider. 'Eight hours later, my visa was rejected and my car was towed,' he said. He decided to scrap the China talk and join his collaborators in Germany. Gee secured the team a room in the basement of the Hausdorff Research Institute, where they were unlikely to be disturbed by itinerant mathematicians. There, they spent an entire week working on Pan's theorem, one 12-hour day after the next, only coming up to ground level occasionally for caffeine. 'After a coffee, we would always joke that we had to go back to the mine,' Pilloni said. The grind paid off. 'There were many twists to come later,' Calegari said, 'but at the end of that week I thought we more or less had it.' It took another year and a half to turn Calegari's conviction into a 230-page proof, which they posted online in February. Putting all the pieces together, they'd proved that any ordinary abelian surface has an associated modular form. Their new portal could one day be as powerful as Taylor and Wiles' result, revealing more about abelian surfaces than anyone thought possible. But first, the team will have to extend their result to non-ordinary abelian surfaces. They've teamed up with Pan to continue the hunt. 'Ten years from now, I'd be surprised if we haven't found almost all of them,' Gee said. The work has also allowed mathematicians to formulate new conjectures—such as an analogue of the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture that involves abelian surfaces instead of elliptic curves. 'Now we at least know that the analogue makes sense' for these ordinary surfaces, said Andrew Sutherland, a mathematician at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 'Previously we did not know that.' 'Lots of things that I had dreamed we would be able to one day prove are now within reach because of this theorem,' he added. 'It changes things.' Original story reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent publication of the Simons Foundation whose mission is to enhance public understanding of science by covering research developments and trends in mathematics and the physical and life sciences.
West Australian
5 days ago
- Health
- West Australian
Mid West flu cases surge to 326, surpassing 2024 total amid spike in respiratory illness and low vax rates
Influenza cases in the Mid West have already surpassed last year's total, with local health professionals urging residents to take precautions and get the flu shot amid a sharp spike in respiratory illnesses. As of July 23, 326 influenza cases have been recorded in the Mid West so far this year, eclipsing the 314 cases reported in 2024. Alarmingly, 224 of those have been reported in just the past three months, up from 136 in the same period last year. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections are also climbing, with 151 cases recorded so far this year, well on their way to surpassing the 217 cases recorded in 2024. 'Lots of presentations for viral infections, upper respiratory tract infections and influenza-type symptoms presented to both pharmacies and so we've definitely seen the effect of that.' Despite free flu shots being available through the National Immunisation Program, Mr Buise said the number of people coming in for the vaccine appeared to be lagging. 'Unfortunately, with vaccination rates, I don't think we're achieving what we should be,' he said. 'I'm not sure whether it's vaccine fatigue or not, but we've seen lower rates of flu vaccines and an increased rate of presentations with flu-like symptoms.' With the season far from over, Midwest GP Network chair Richard Taylor urged those feeling unwell to look after themselves and the community. 'It is really important to stay home if you're unwell as airborne transmission of these very infectious viruses is how they spread. 'The key message is please stay home; your work colleagues will thank you for it. For those vulnerable people, it really is important if you're unwell to stay home.' Mr Buise encouraged those who have not had their flu jab yet to get it done. 'Getting in now and having your flu vaccine is better than not at all,' he said. 'It's providing protection for (your) family and for our aged community as well.'
Scoop
20-07-2025
- Health
- Scoop
Wētā Workshop Designed TCM Cultural Experience Center Opens In Guangdong China
From the lotus petal-shaped building to the larger-than-life hyper-realistic figures, magical forests, and a futuristic herbal laboratory — these are just some of the aspects of the new TCM Cultural Experience Center designed by Richard Taylor and his team at Wētā Workshop, working in close collaboration with Wellington and China-based creative practitioners and companies. This unique and striking center opened on Saturday 19 July at the Guangdong-Macao Traditional Chinese Medicine Science and Technology Industrial Park, China. The Guangdong-Macao Traditional Chinese Medicine Science and Technology Industrial Park features a mix of facilities, including offices, R&D centres, hotels, retail streets, an experience centre, pharmaceutical plants, testing and extraction centres, and staff apartments. As a core part of the park, the five-storey TCM Cultural Experience Center, with a floor area of 36,000 square metres, is the flagship of its health sector and a powerful symbol of cultural integration in the Greater Bay Area. This new TCM Cultural Experience Center offers a fully immersive experience that brings the culture of traditional Chinese medicine to life, guiding visitors on a journey from its mythological origins to the advancements in modern practices, and on into thefuture. This natural approach to medicine is a critically important part of Chinese wellbeing, and the TCM Cultural Experience Center aims to inspire future generations to learn about this important cultural practice. Taylor, alongside creative collaborator Sam Gao, worked over seven years to realise the project in close collaboration with client Hengxin Shambala. Wētā Workshop's Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, Richard Taylor, says, 'For me it was critical to approach the subject with a deep sense of commitment, and to learn all that I could of the mythology, history, science, and culture of this fascinating subject. By exploring the use of herbal medicine over centuries of Chinese wellbeing, a complex and intriguing story begins to unfold.' The TCM Cultural Experience Center is Wētā Workshop's largest project to date, and their second large-scale immersive experience project in China, following the completion of their award-winning work on Aura: The Forest at the Edge of the Sky at the duty-free shopping mall in Haikou, on Hainan Island in 2022. The TCM Cultural Experience Center is especially significant for Taylor and the team at Wētā Workshop, not only due to the size and scale of the project, but the extent to which the team researched and designed the experience, from the uniquely designed building itself, through to the cultural narratives within its spaces. Taylor adds, 'As I have spent close to three decades working in China, it came as an extraordinary treat to work so comprehensively on something as monumental as this experience. What started as a white board drawing in my office now stands as a magnificent structure containing an utterly unique cultural exhibition.' 'This was a very special project that is testament to the tight collaboration and creative exchange between two teams — one in New Zealand, and one in China — united by the collective endeavour of creating the world's most unique TCM Cultural Experience Center,' Taylor adds. Wētā Workshop's head of creative media, Sam Gao, worked closely with Taylor on both creative direction and hands-on sculpting elements and says, 'Despite the challenges of often having to work remotely, the project was immensely fulfilling and brought together people from China mainland and Macau, alongside our own Workshop team in New Zealand.' 'On a more personal level, it was an honour to share my creative expertise on a project that celebrates traditional Chinese medicine and brings to life stories from my cultural upbringing,' Gao adds. The TCM Cultural Experience Center experience starts before guests enter, with its unique building design paying homage to the herbal plants that are critical to traditional Chinese medicine. Within the building guests encounter a multitude of exhibits, including a large number of hyper-realistic up-scaled figures representing key moments from Chinese culture including Hua Tuo, Zhang Zhongjing and Li Shi Zhen. A 50-metrre-long animated 'historical tapestry' is just one of several features which skilfully combine artistry and interactive smart tech throughout the building. The stunning central atrium showcases the story of Shen Nong with a large-scale mural on the ceiling, with 100 birds flying down towards the ground floor, connecting all five levels of the building. Working alongside collaborator Sam Gao, Taylor and Gao strived to facilitate and connect two teams of creatives. Providing design and fabrication services from their base in Wellington, Wētā Workshop worked with New Zealand-based designers, musical composer, architects, and lighting designers to work alongside them during this unprecedented project. In collaboration with client Shambala, Taylor and Gao also art directed dozens of highly skilled Chinese creatives and technicians to complete the center. Taylor adds, 'This project is the cumulation of a near three-decade long relationship that I have had with China, and celebrates the strong creative exchange we have established with friends and colleagues in both countries.' The TCM Cultural Experience Center adds to Wētā Workshop's growing portfolio of immersive experiences work globally, with significant projects in New Zealand, China and the Middle East. About Wētā Workshop Wētā Workshop brings imaginary worlds to life by delivering concept design, physical effects, collectibles, immersive visitor experiences, creative media and digital games to the world's entertainment and creative industries. Established by Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger in 1987, they are best known for their screen work on The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, the Avatar films, District 9 and Dune to name a few. Their work in immersive visitor experiences, such as Gallipoli: The Scale of our War, Expo 2020 Dubai's Mobility Pavilion, Aura: Forest at the Edge of the Sky and Wētā Workshop Unleashed. Based in Wellington, New Zealand, Wētā Workshop's ground-breaking work has earned them multiple international awards including five Oscars and three THEA awards. About the TCM Cultural Experience Center The TCM Cultural Experience Center is the world's first large-scale TCM-focused experience that offers an immersive journey through an informative and visually unique experience. Designed by Richard Taylor, creative director, five-time Academy Award winner and co-founder of Wētā Workshop, the centre delivers a fantastical experience that celebrates in the culture, mythology, science and history of traditional Chinese medicine.
NZ Herald
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Wētā FX earns two Emmy nominations for visual effects work on House of the Dragon, The Last of Us
Wētā Workshop co-founder Sir Richard Taylor speaks about Lord of the Rings 20 years on from the final instalment of the trilogy. Video / Marty Melville Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech. Wētā FX earns two Emmy nominations for visual effects work on House of the Dragon, The Last of Us New Zealand visual effects company Wētā FX has landed two Emmy Award nominations for its contributions to two high production value television shows. The Wellington-based company's special effects for the second seasons of The Last of Us and House of the Dragon were recognised in the Outstanding Special Visual Effects category. 'Having our work recognised by our peers and the global entertainment community is something we deeply appreciate,' Matt Aitken, Wētā FX's head of visual effects (VFX), said in a statement. 'The nominations are testament to the outstanding quality of work contributed by everyone at Wētā FX and we couldn't be prouder to be adding to the rich history of these iconic series.' The House of the Dragon team's VFX supervisor Wayne Stables said he was 'honoured' to be recognised with VFX producer Marcus Goodwin on their team's behalf.
