[Note: A condensed and revised version of this article was published here in The Conversation, an online forum of academic research headquartered in Melbourne, Australia.]
Introduction
Monumental inventions of history can be grouped into three categories: (a) those whose origin is well known and well appreciated; (b) those whose origin is completely lost to history; and (c) those who origin may be known, at least in general terms, but which are not very well appreciated in modern society. Among those in the first category are efficient steam engines (by James Watt in 1765), movable-type printing (by the Chinese inventor Bi
Continue reading What if base-10 arithmetic had been discovered earlier?
The Conversation is a recently established web journal dedicated to making academic and related policy issues accessible to an informed public. The editors write:
The Conversation is an independent source of information, analysis and commentary from the university and research sector – written by acknowledged experts and delivered directly to the public. As professional journalists, we aim to make this wealth of knowledge and expertise accessible to all.
So far this has been done in a most lively and stimulating fashion; it is garnering readers within and without the academy from across the world let us hope it can be
Continue reading Turning IBM’s Watson into a maths genius
Acronyms have been used lately to describe various groups of world nations. Readers may be familiar with “PIIGS”, namely Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain, which are the nations now teetering on default after years of lax fiscal policies, and unrealistic expectations for the Euro. Readers may also have heard of “BRIC”, namely Brazil, Russia, India and China, which many observers now believe constitute a powerhouse of large, upwardly mobile nations that very likely will dominate the economy and political structure of the 21st century world. All except Russia inarguably have show extraordinary economic growth since the millennium.
We would
Continue reading PIIGS, BRICs and STRAW
A new book, co-authored by one of the present bloggers is now available: An Introduction to Modern Mathematical Computing: With Maple, authored by Jonathan M. Borwein and Matthew P. Skerritt, published by Springer, 2011. Here is a brief synopsis:
Thirty years ago, mathematical computation was difficult to perform and thus used sparingly. However, mathematical computation has become far more accessible due to the emergence of the personal computer, the discovery of fiber-optics and the consequent development of the modern internet, and the creation of Maple, Mathematica, and Matlab.
An Introduction to Modern Mathematical Computing: With Maple looks beyond teaching the
Continue reading An Introduction to Modern Mathematical Computing
In a previous blog post, we addressed the perplexing phenomenon that whereas the scientific community years ago reached a strong consensus regarding the fact of global warming and the very likely human contribution to global warming, the public continues to believe that there is significant uncertainty and disagreement in the scientific community.
For example, in a recent poll, only 56% of Americans agreed that there is solid evidence of warming, and only 32% agreed that this warming can mostly be attributed to human actions. Similar results were found in 2009. For details, see 2010 Pew poll; 2009 Pew poll. Similarly,
Continue reading Merchants of Doubt
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