Here’s a quick round-up of some news stories from the tail end of 2012 that we characteristically failed to write up!
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- Prof. Frank Kelly FRS, Professor of the Mathematics of Systems in the Statistical Laboratory, University of Cambridge and Chair of the Council for the Mathematical Sciences; CBE “for services to Mathematical Sciences”;
- Terry Heard, teacher, author and co-founder of the UK Mathematics Trust; MBE “for services to the Teaching of Mathematics”;
- Jenny Ramsden, teacher; MBE “for services to Further Education and to Mathematics Education through the UK Mathematics Trust”.
Math/Maths 126: Review of the year – 1712
A new episode of the Math/Maths Podcast has been released.
A conversation about mathematics between the UK and USA from Pulse-Project.org. In a traditional move for the end of December, we attempt a review of the year. In an untraditional move, we choose the year 1712. Catch up with the latest from Christian Goldbach, Sir Isaac Newton, Gottfried Leibniz, John Flamsteed, Brook Taylor, Giovanni Cassini and Abraham de Moivre.
Get this episode: Math/Maths 126: Review of the year – 1712
Let’s ture to the max!
A new study from Prof. Lawks A. Mercy and Dr. O. Goode-Griefe of the Institute of Blogging Studies indicates that we have published absolutely loads of posts about Alan Turing this year, the Alan Turing Year. We’ve posted about Alan Turing events, Alan Turing facts, Alan Turing competitions and O mercy me have we posted about Alan Turing petitions.
So this is the last Turing post of 2012. I’ve been saving this thing up so it can be the last Turing post this year and on Wednesday morning we can put the whole mad shebang behind us.
What I’d like to bring your attention to is nothing so demanding of your attention as a petition or a campaign, but a little suggestion for a simple way to commemorate Alan Turing: Donald A. Knuth has posted on his website that it would be a nice idea to define a meaning for the verb ‘to ture‘.
Particularly mathematical New Years Honours 2013
The New Year Honours list 2013 was published today. Here we note those awarded in relation to mathematics. Are there any others I’ve missed? Please enlighten us in the comments.
In addition, theoretical particle physicist Prof. Peter Higgs was appointed Companion of Honour “for services to Physics”, Professor Keith Burnett CBE FRS, physicist and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield was knighted “for services to Science and Higher Education” and Jeremy Buckle, event director of the Big Bang: UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair, was awarded the Medal of the Order of the British Empire “for services to Science and Engineering”.
A full list may be obtained from the Cabinet Office website.
Update (14:23): Thanks to Mr H in the comments for adding Jerry Roberts, who worked on deciphering Tunny (Lorenz) at Bletchley Park during World War II, awarded MBE “for services to the work of Bletchley Park and to codebreaking” (listed as Raymond Clarke Roberts, in the departmental list, rather than the general).
Update (02/01/2013 12:38): Hetan Shah, Executive Director of the Royal Statistical Society, has tweeted that two RSS fellows not mentioned here are included on the list, that is Prof. Ian Diamond FBA FRSE, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, University of Aberdeen, knighted “for services to Social Science and Higher Education”, and Prof. David Hand, Senior Research Investigator, Imperial College London, awarded OBE “for services to Research and Innovation”.
Math/Maths 125: Kevin Devlin’s Introduction to Mathematical Thinking MOOC
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 were joined by special guest Professor Keith Devlin of Stanford University to speak about his Massively Open Online Course (MOOC) Introduction to Mathematical Thinking, which was delivered to up to 60,000 students via Coursera in fall/autumn 2012.
Get this episode: Math/Maths 125: Kevin Devlin’s Introduction to Mathematical Thinking MOOC
Can you do long division? And other questions we’d like answers to.
Do you know how to do long division? I don’t. Prompted by an annoying article I saw, I’d like to know how many people do know how to do long division.
So this is as good an opportunity as any to use a side-project I’ve been working on recently, which I’ve called The Aperiodical’s Mathematical Survey. I’ve asked quite a few questions like the above here or on Twitter, so I thought it would be a good idea to do something systematic about collecting answers to them.
At the moment, I’ve put up a few questions that occurred to me off the top of my head, such as what’s your favourite number?, how do you write the letter $x$?, and of course, can you do long division?
I hope that if I leave the site running long enough, people will drop in and answer questions every now and then. If we get enough answers I’ll do some Science on the responses, otherwise I’ll just have to do some uninformed Punditry instead.
Please go to The Aperiodical’s Mathematical Survey site and answer a question or two.
Gregorian Calendarists predict coming apocalypse
People all over the world are today increasingly worried about the foretold end of the world, predicted by the ending of the current cycle of the Gregorian calendar. The calendar, which so far has been running for a period of around 355 days, will come to an end on 31st December, at which point experts [citation needed] predict that the world will end, caused by mysterious gravitational alignments of planets, geomagnetic reversals and the cataclysmic collision with Earth of the fictional planet Nibiru.
While no evidence of any of these forthcoming events has yet been observed by scientists, and in fact many of them are contradicted by simple astronomical observations, sales of apocalypse survival shelters have increased (such as these fine ones from Atlas Survival Shelters; other brands are available), as have ticket sales to ‘Apocalypse Parties’, where people will celebrate the world’s ending by getting drunk, primarily to numb themselves against any possible catastrophic explosions or destruction. Musician Jools Holland is apparently planning an apocalyptic Hootenanny on 31st December, at which celebrities and musicians will come together to party and fear for their lives in a boozy huddle at the stroke of midnight.
We spoke to an unnamed Mayan, who said, “It’s a shame the world will be ending in 11 days from now, as our Mesoamerican Long Count calendar has just entered a new B’ak’tun, which to us symbolises a fresh start and new life – for us, the end of the calendar will be an opportunity for a huge celebration. It’s such a pity that after that, we’ll only have another 11 days of existence.”