William Thurston died yesterday of cancer, aged 65. Thurston was one of the greatest contemporary mathematicians; a huge figure in low-dimensional topology. I won’t bother writing out a mathematical biography – Wikipedia and MacTutor have all the relevant information, as usual, and I won’t pretend I know a huge amount about the exact details of Thurston’s…
Knitted Spiky Icosahedron
As an avid knitter, and mathematician, the birth of a small human in my family inspired me to create a mathematical toy for the tiny person to enjoy while learning about shapes. With my favourite platonic solid being the icosahedron, it was the obvious choice for a knitted toy, and with stellation being all the…
The Guardian’s open access round-up
These open access round-ups I’ve been doing are a good idea, eh? The Guardian agrees: they’ve posted their own open access round up. It’s less of a “what’s new” and more of a “the story so far”, though.
Math/Maths 108: Not burdened with modern theories
A new episode of the Math/Maths Podcast has been released. A conversation about mathematics between the UK and USA from Pulse-Project.org. This week Samuel and Peter spoke about: new 11-set Venn diagram; In Defense of Algebra; Understanding maths ‘more important than learning by rote’; A glider on an aperiodic cellular automaton exists!; Human cycles: History…
David’s de Bruijn sequence card trick
A few days ago, my friend David asked me if I could help him with a card trick. I said I could, hence this post. I managed to pin David down in front of my camera long enough for him to demonstrate the trick; a full explanation follows this video:
A glider on an aperiodic cellular automaton exists!
Good news, everyone! I literally jumped out of my seat and punched the air when I saw this story. It’s as if this site was set up specifically to report on this exact piece of news.
G4G Celebration of Mind 2012 Event Map is live
The event map for the Gathering for Gardner Celebration of Mind 2012 is now live, with nine events already listed in North and South America and Europe. More will surely be added in time. These are parties “to celebrate the legacy of Martin Gardner on or around Sunday, October 21, 2012 through the enjoyment of Puzzles,…