In a dramatic announcement on March 16, 2014, a team of astronomers led by John Kovac of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said that they have detected gravitational waves, confirming predictions made by mathematical physicists Alan Guth, Andrei Linde and others in the 1970s and 1980s.
Gravitational waves from inflation, with their distinctive twisting pattern, in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation.
MIT physicist/cosmologist Max Tegmark assessed the discovery in these terms: “I think that if this stays true, it will go down as one of the greatest discoveries in the history of science.”
Similarly, Marc Kamionkowski
Continue reading Gravitational waves confirm mathematical prediction of inflationary big bang
Introduction
In a 2004 review in Science of Searle’s Mind a Brief Introduction, neuro-scientist Christof Koch wrote
Whether we scientists are inspired, bored, or infuriated by philosophy, all our theorizing and experimentation depends on particular philosophical background assumptions. This hidden influence is an acute embarrassment to many researchers, and it is therefore not often acknowledged. Such fundamental notions as reality, space, time, and causality–notions found at the core of the scientific enterprise–all rely on particular metaphysical assumptions about the world.
This may seem self-evident, and was regarded as important by Einstein, Bohr and the founders of quantum theory a century
Continue reading Is philosophy needed in mathematics and science?
A special session “Software, Design and Practice in Random Walks” has been scheduled for the upcoming Fourth international Congress on Mathematical Software (ICMS2014), to be held in Seoul, August 5-9, 2014.
This session will examine interactions between software use/design and random walk research, in a broad sense. More details, including abstract submission guidelines, can be found at ICMS website.
Plenary speakers for the conference include:
Jonathan Borwein (one of the present bloggers), University of Newcastle, Australia. Bruno Buchberger, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria. Wolfram Decker, Technische Universitat Kaiserslautern, Germany. Andrew Sommese, University of Notre Dame, USA. Lloyd Trefethen,
Continue reading Upcoming ICMS special session on random walks
Pi is very old
The number pi = 3.14159265358979323846… is arguably the only mathematical topic from very early history that is still being researched today. The Babylonians used the approximation pi ≈ 3. The Egyptian Rhind Papyrus, dated roughly 1650 BCE, suggests pi = 256/81 = 3.16049…. Early Indian mathematicians believed pi = √10 = 3.162277… Archimedes, in the first mathematically rigorous calculation, employed a clever iterative construction of inscribed and circumscribed polygons to able to establish that 3 < 10/71 = 3.14084... < pi < 3 1/7 = 3.14285... This amazing work, done without trigonometry or floating
Continue reading Pi day 3.14 (14)
Scientists through the ages have noted, often with some astonishment, not only the remarkable success of mathematics in describing the natural world, but also the fact that the best mathematical formulations are usually those that are the most beautiful. And almost all research mathematicians pepper their description of important mathematical work with terms like “unexpected,” “elegance,” “simplicity” and “beauty.”
Some selected opinions
British Mathematician G. H. Hardy (1877–1947), pictured below, expressed in his autobiographical book A Mathematician’s Apology what most working mathematicians experience: “Beauty is the first test; there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics.”
Continue reading Why mathematics is beautiful and why that matters
Physicist Max Tegmark has just published an interesting new book entitled Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality. In this very lucidly written book, Tegmark takes the reader on a tour of modern physics and then introduces his theory of the ultimate nature of the universe.
Tegmark starts out by exploring a list of questions, such as “How big is space?,” “Where did our solar system come from?” and “Where did our big bang come from?.” He then examines some of the difficulties with current theories, including both the successes and failures of the “inflation”
Continue reading Max Tegmark’s “Our Mathematical Universe”
Numerous studies have been done trying to assess the degree to which mathematical ability is inborn or learned. Especially since the era of brain imaging made neurological enquiry realistic.
For example, in a 2011 study, Melissa Libertus, a psychologist at Johns Hopkins University, displayed briefly flashing groups of blue and yellow dots on a computer screen to 200 four-year-old children. The children had to estimate which group of dots was larger (in number). They also were given a standard test of early mathematical ability that measures numbering skills (counting items on a page), numeral literacy (reading numbers), and elementary calculation
Continue reading Are our brains hard-wired for numbers?
Material on this site is provided for purposes of academic research, and does not necessarily reflect views of the bloggers’ employers, funding agencies or any other organization. Also, inclusion of material (articles, quotations, excerpts) on this website does not necessarily indicate that the bloggers endorse that material. Where articles have other authors indicated, those authors are themselves responsible for the contents. All material on this blog and website is copyrighted. All rights reserved. David H. Bailey (c) 2026.
[Editor’s note: This is reprinted from The Conversation, 18 Dec 2013. The original article is authored by Michael Rose and Jonathan Borwein.]
The warmth on your face, the scenic view outside — such delights are delivered to you by countless photons from the sun. But believe it or not, these photons move in much the same way as an inebriated person wandering home from the pub, or the initial whiff of coffee as you open a bag of beans.
Let me explain.
Travelling at the fastest speed known to physics, these photons crossed from the sun to the Earth in
Continue reading Tipsy tottering, sunlight and the smell of coffee: it’s all random
In July 2012, Russian billionaire Yuri Milner startled the world of physics by establishing the Fundamental Physics Prize, with awards of $3,000,000 each to nine physicists, including well-known cosmologists Alan Guth, Andrei Linde, Juan Maldacena and Edward Witten, among others. These physicists now constitute a committee to select future awardees. The 2013 awardee was Alexander Polyakov for his work in quantum field theory and string theory. In December 2013, the 2014 awardees were announced, which are John Schwarz of Caltech and Michael Green of Cambridge.
In 2013, Milner, in partnership with Google founder Sergey Brin, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and
Continue reading Yuri Milner to award $3M prizes to mathematicians
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