In 1742, German mathematician Christian Goldbach wrote, in a letter to famed mathematician Leonhard Euler, that he believed “Every integer greater than two can be written as the sum of three primes.” In subsequent correspondence, the stronger version “Every even integer can be expressed as the sum of two primes” was suggested, as well as . . . → Read More: Terence Tao releases partial solution to the Goldbach conjecture
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The 1969 movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” was a landmark science-fiction film, in many ways far ahead of its time. With the recent release of a 1080p Blu-Ray video version, home viewers can enjoy nearly the same stunning level of graphics and visual effects of the original big-screen theater release. Forty-three years later, in the . . . → Read More: “2001: A Space Odyssey”: Art versus 2012 reality Introduction In the past few years, modern genome sequencing and computer technology have placed enormous volumes of DNA data at the fingertips of researchers worldwide. The first complete human genome sequence was completed in 2000, after a ten-year effort that cost over USD$500 million. But genome sequencing technology is advancing very rapidly — human genomes . . . → Read More: What does the latest DNA data say about evolution? This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of famed British mathematician Alan Turing (23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954). The outline of his remarkable life and sad ending has by now become fairly well known. Turing laid numerous foundation stones of modern computing, ranging from the deepest mathematical nature of computing (using what are now called . . . → Read More: Is your mate actually a computer? Would you pass the “Turing test”? In his book Why Beliefs Matter: Reflections on the Nature of science, noted British mathematician E. Brian Davies surveys the sweeping landscape of modern philosophy of science and mathematics, with considerable skill and numerous thoughtful insights. Its closest analogue would be John Barrow’s 1992 book Pi in the Sky: Counting, Thinking and Being. Davies is . . . → Read More: Book Review: “Why Beliefs Matter: Reflections on the Nature of Science” The present bloggers have instituted a new category of brief postings under the rubric of ”Numbers to note.” These are items that we see posted in news media or other sources with particularly interesting data of one type or another relating to either current events or to developments in science and/or technology. In many cases . . . → Read More: Numbers to note (#1): Treasury report on TARP program Games are as old as human society as the image below illustrates. But as with all other parts of society, games and gaming are being profoundly changed by the computing and communication revolution. Some of the changes are obvious, some are less so. © Maler der Grabkammer der Nefertari. This work portrays the ancient Egyptian . . . → Read More: Are computers playing games with us? With all the attention given lately to the tentative discovery of the long-sought Higgs boson in experiments at the Large Hardon Collider (LHC) in Europe, one would think that more attention would be drawn to Amalie Emmy Noether, a woman who made groundbreaking contributions to both mathematics and physics. Noether (pronounced “ner-ter”) was born in . . . → Read More: Emmy Noether: pillar of 20th century mathematics and physics Endre Szemerédi, who has positions both at Rutgers University in the USA, and the Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics in Hungary, has been awarded the 2012 Abel Prize for mathematics. The Abel Prize, which is accompanied by a monetary award of approximately USD$1 million, is widely considered comparable to the Nobel Prize. It has been . . . → Read More: Endre Szemeredi wins Abel Prize for work in mathematics and computing Many are familiar with the 1997 defeat of Garry Kasparov, the world’s reigning chess champion, by IBM’s “Deep Blue” computer [1997 NY Times article]. This feat was hailed as a major milestone in the development of artificially intelligent computer systems. But even this feat was overshadowed by the 2011 defeat of the two most successful . . . → Read More: Computer challenges human crossword puzzle solvers |
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