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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 certainly qualified to write this book. He has published works in spectral theory, operator theory, quantum mechanics, and the philosophy of science. He served as the President of the London Mathematical Society from 2008-2009.
Some of Davies’ most intriguing comments relate to the nature of
Continue reading 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 the notable numbers belie previous or current political bombast.
Our first posting comes from a very interesting set of charts just released by the U.S. Treasury entitled “The Financial Crisis Response in Charts”. This is chock-full of intriguing data on the recent financial crash of
Continue reading 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 game of Senet
Computer games humans play
It is both useful and sobering to consider the enormous progress that has been made in computer technology over the past 50 years. Back in 1965 Intel co-founder Gordon Moore observed in a little-noticed article
Continue reading 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 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?
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