There is a new page collating all previous Carnival of Mathematics posts and listing future hosts, and through which you can volunteer to host future Carnivals: “Carnival of Mathematics“.
You're reading: Posts By Peter Rowlett
John Conway profile
An interview/profile of John Conway has been published at The Daily Princetonian. Conway talks about his life and his methods.
“We’re remarkably free here,” Conway said of his position at Princeton. “Nobody tells me off for playing games. In fact, I’ve made playing games be serious.”
Source: Math and games.
Devlin’s 21st C. mathematician that can’t be outsourced
Keith Devlin has written a piece in the Huffington Post.
Repetitive tasks such as high-tech assembly-line manufacturing, airline reservations, and customer support are not the only things that can be outsourced in the flat world of the twenty-first century. So too can many less routine tasks that require a university education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
In particular, procedural mathematics (solving differential equations, optimizing systems of inequalities, etc.) can be outsourced.
Devlin argues that all mathematical skills taught at university can be outsourced to computers or other countries and says:
If we cannot compete, then we need to play a different game. Fortunately, that other game is one we already do well at: originality and innovation.
Advance in snowflake growth simulation
Scientific American are reporting that “a team of mathematicians has for the first time succeeded in simulating a panoply of snowflake shapes using basic conservation laws, such as preserving the number of water molecules in the air”.
This explains that previous simulations often simulate the crystal surface using interlocking triangles, but that:
the triangles often deform and collapse in simulations, leading to singularities that bring the simulation to an abrupt halt… Garcke’s team got around this difficulty by devising a method to describe the curvature and other geometric information about the snowflake surface so that it could be appropriately encoded into a computer.
Emmy Noether biography in NY Times
A biography of Emmy Noether has been published in the New York Times.
Albert Einstein called her the most “significant” and “creative” female mathematician of all time, and others of her contemporaries were inclined to drop the modification by sex. She invented a theorem that united with magisterial concision two conceptual pillars of physics: symmetry in nature and the universal laws of conservation. Some consider Noether’s theorem, as it is now called, as important as Einstein’s theory of relativity; it undergirds much of today’s vanguard research in physics, including the hunt for the almighty Higgs boson. Yet Noether herself remains utterly unknown, not only to the general public, but to many members of the scientific community as well.
30th Anniversary LMS Popular Lectures: Gowers and Penrose
The 30th Anniversary LMS Popular Lectures will be given by Professor Sir Roger Penrose, FRS (University of Oxford) and Professor Tim Gowers, FRS (University of Cambridge).
The London Mathematical Society Popular Lectures present exciting topics in mathematics (and its applications) to a wide audience. The lectures are suitable for all who have an interest in mathematics. The lectures will held on Tuesday 26 June at the Institute of Education, London, from 7.00 – 9.30pm and repeated on Wednesday 26 September at King Edward School, Birmingham, from 6.30 – 9.00pm.
If you would like to be included on the Popular Lectures mailing list, please contact Elizabeth Fisher (education@lms.ac.uk).
Further details: LMS Popular Lectures.
Put Alan Turing on bitcoins
Following the recent trend for Alan Turing petitions to be filed with the UK Government e-petitions website, and in particular the current Turing bank note petition, a new petition shows a satirical twist:
Alan Turing is a national hero. His contribution to computer science, and hence to the life of the nation and the world, is incalculable. The ripple-effect of his theories on modern life continues to grow, and may never stop.
There is a petition that calls upon the Treasury to request the Bank of England to consider depicting Alan Turing when new £10 banknotes are designed. However, given Turing’s contributions as a computer scientist, it should be much more appropriate for him to appear on a digital currency such as bitcoins.
We therefore call upon the Bank of England to consider depicting Alan Turing on bitcoins.
Bitcoins, for those who don’t know (so don’t understand the silliness), are described as:
an experimental new digital currency that enables instant payments to anyone, anywhere in the world. Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority: managing transactions and issuing money are carried out collectively by the network.