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 1882 to a Jewish family in Bavaria, Germany. Both her father and her brother were also mathematicians of some renown. She started out studying English, French and piano, which were thought to be more appropriate for a woman, but inevitably she became interested in mathematics.
Continue reading 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 granted by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters since 2003. It is named for the 19th century Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel, who did groundbreaking work in algebra and analysis, including the first complete proof that a general fifth degree polynomial is not solvable
Continue reading 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 contestants on the American quiz show Jeopardy!, by a new IBM-developed computer system named “Watson” [2011 NY Times article]. As we explained in a previous blog article, the Watson achievement was significantly more impressive than the Deep Blue because it involved “natural language understanding,” namely
Continue reading Computer challenges human crossword puzzle solvers
A collection of papers in the field of computational and experimental mathematics authored by one or both of the present bloggers has now been published by Perfectly Scientific Press.
Entitled Exploratory Experimentation in Mathematics: Selected Works, the work collects 16 articles that reflect the changing face of computer-assisted “high-performance” mathematics, wherein the computer is increasingly utilized as an active agent for exploration and discovery in the world of research mathematics.
Richard E. Crandall, a colleague of the present bloggers and Director of the Center for Advanced Computation at Reed College, comments as follows:
Refreshing always it is to have
Continue reading Bailey and Borwein publish new collection of experimental math papers
Recent news reports and commentaries have again drawn attention to a “numeracy crisis” that threatens the economies of first-world nations.
In the U.S., a 2009 report by the National Academies again highlighted the desperate need to improve mathematical education, particularly at the K-12 level, where so many otherwise talented students either fall behind or lose interest. The report’s Summary concluded
Mathematics education has risen to the top of the national policy agenda as part of the need to improve the technical and scientific literacy of the American public. The new demands of international competition in the 21st century require a
Continue reading “Numeracy crisis” threatens first-world economies
Introduction
In one respect, science and religion have been largely reconciled since the nineteenth century, when geologists such as Charles Lyell recognized the evidence for a very old earth, and, within a few decades, most mainstream religious denominations accepted this view as well.
But much to the consternation of scientists, young-earth creationism, which holds that the earth is only about 6000 years old, continues to be promoted in some quarters, and remains very popular with the public, especially in the United States. A 2010 Gallup poll found that 40% of Americans believe that “God created humans in their present form
Continue reading How old is the earth? Calculate it for yourself
Given the ever-growing importance of science and technology in modern life, particularly in first world nations, why don’t we see more scientists in leading governmental positions?
This dearth is particularly stark in the U.S. Among the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, only three have bonafide scientific credentials (one physicist, one chemist, one microbiologist). An additional 24 or so have medical training, but this is still a small fraction of the total. Instead, top legislative and executive positions are dominated by the legal and business professions [NYT Op-Ed].
In a recent study of the composition of the Australian
Continue reading Scientists in politics: What is the score, and what can be done?
[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.]
These are painful times for those hoping to see an international consensus and substantive action on global warming.
In the U.S., Republican Presidential candidates appear to be moving from open-minded views to outright denial. In June 2011, current front-runner Mitt Romney said “the world is getting warmer,” and “humans have contributed,” but in October 2011 he backtracked to “My view is that we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet.” Newt Gingrich moved
Continue reading Global warming denial and scientific integrity
Geoff Wain, a mathematics educator at Leeds University, is promoting an initiative to organize a museum of mathematics in the U.K.
Wain notes the successful Mathematikum in Giessen, Germany, which opened in 2002 and now attracts 150,000 visitors per year, and the Museum of Mathematics in New York City, which is slated to open later this year. He asks “Where would you go to find out about mathematics? … There’s absolutely nowhere in this country. It’s very sad.”
Last week Wain and some supporters gathered at King’s College to discuss plans for the museum, which is tentatively known as
Continue reading Researchers seek UK home for mathematics museum
The new book Convex Functions by Jonathan M. Borwein and Jon D. Vanderwerff has been selected as one of the “Outstanding Academic Titles” for 2011 by Choice, the American Library Association’s library book review journal.
Here is an excerpt from a review written by John D. Cook and published by the Mathematical Association of America in their Mathematical Sciences Digital Library:
When mathematicians say a function is “nonlinear” they often mean that it is not necessarily linear. In this sense “nonlinear” is not an assumption but rather the absence of an assumption. To make progress in studying a nonlinear problem,
Continue reading Borwein’s book Convex Functions selected as Outstanding Academic Title
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