Posts Tagged ‘new scientist’
Patents for software?
AT SOME point in their career every mathematician comes up against the question, is mathematics invented or discovered? The query makes some cranky. The answer doesn’t directly affect their work, after all, and the discussion often leads nowhere useful. [Read More]
Agent Higgs game turns real particle hunt on its head
As the world waits for the next installment of news in the hunt for the Higgs boson, a simple smart phone game encourages players to hide, not hunt, the world’s favourite particle. Read more in this New Scientist article. [Read More]
Prize awarded for largest mathematical proof
The largest proof in mathematics is colossal in every dimension – from the 100-plus people needed to crack it to its 15,000 pages of calculations. Now the man who helped complete a key missing piece of the proof has won a prize. In early November, Michael [Read More]
Tibetan singing bowls
Tibetan singing bowls, ancient instruments used for meditation, can be manipulated to produce droplets that levitate, bounce and skip across water. When one adds water to a Tibetan singing bowl and plays – often by tracing the edge with a mallet – the bowl’s [Read More]
Turning math into money
Mathematician Richard Hamilton was named a co-winner of the 2011 Shaw Prize for Mathematical Sciences. The honor comes with a $500K check. Hamilton is best known as the architect of the Ricci flow, a mathematical process that formed the foundation of Grisha Perelman’s [Read More]
Trig Shots
What’s the hardest straight-in shot in pool? Mathematician tries to find out in this article for New Scientist. This article is behind a paywall and I haven’t yet uploaded a pdf. Email me, and I’ll send you a copy. [Read More]
The Perfect Way to Slice a Pizza
Unsolved problems make for good stories. In this case, a couple of mathematicians cracked the little-known “Pizza Conjecture,” a rigorous attempt to understand how to share a pie. I wrote the story behind the solution for New Scientist in December 2009. Read it [Read More]
Wallpaper for a Hyperbolic World
Frank Farris is a mathematician who has some wild ideas about wallpapering your hyperbolic house. I wrote about him for New Scientist. If you subscribe to the magazine, you can read the story here. I hope to post a pdf of the story soon; in the meantime, feel free to email [Read More]
