Americans, the AMS needs YOU!
You're reading: News
The Best Writing on Mathematics 2012
Every year, Princeton University Press gathers together a small anthology of the best writing on mathematics from the past 12 months.
The Best Writing on Mathematics 2012 was released last week. Now that Princeton’s web servers have been dried out after Hurricane Sandy’s visit, I can give you its blurb:
This annual anthology brings together the year’s finest mathematics writing from around the world. Featuring promising new voices alongside some of the foremost names in the field, The Best Writing on Mathematics 2012 makes available to a wide audience many articles not easily found anywhere else–and you don’t need to be a mathematician to enjoy them. These writings offer surprising insights into the nature, meaning, and practice of mathematics today. They delve into the history, philosophy, teaching, and everyday occurrences of math, and take readers behind the scenes of today’s hottest mathematical debates. Here Robert Lang explains mathematical aspects of origami foldings; Terence Tao discusses the frequency and distribution of the prime numbers; Timothy Gowers and Mario Livio ponder whether mathematics is invented or discovered; Brian Hayes describes what is special about a ball in five dimensions; Mark Colyvan glosses on the mathematics of dating; and much, much more.
The “much, much more” alluded to above includes our very own Peter Rowlett’s collection of essays “The unplanned impact of mathematics”, which was published in Nature last year. And at only £13.95, just £1.95 more than what Nature is asking for Peter’s article alone, The Best Writing on Mathematics 2012 is a steal.
The Best Writing on Mathematics 2012 at Princeton University Press. $19.95/£13.95 in paperback or ebook.
Christian Perfect interviewed on mathblogging.org
You may remember that The Aperiodical’s own Katie Steckles was interviewed on mathblogging.org’s Mathematical Instruments. Now it is the turn of Christian Perfect.
Why and when did Christian start blogging? What does he read every day? Find out in ‘Mathematical Instruments: cp’s mathem-o-blog‘.
Math/Maths 119: Those Boffins, and their Science
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: Sandy; L’Aquila quake: Italy scientists found guilty of manslaughter; In defense of Nate Silver – and basic math; Fear of Math can Hurt; Maths and nature link ‘proven’ by Manchester scientists; The Joy of x; The Fractalist; The Best Writing on Mathematics 2012; Post-16 mathematics: stuff is happening; Rethinking maths for the 21st century; AMS Fellows; The petition to put Alan Turing on the £10 note has received a response; Dance your PhD: Cutting Sequences on the Double Pentagon; Land of the Rising Sums; Recreational Maths Seminar next Sunday at 7pm GMT; First UK screening of Travelling Salesman Movie; MathsCareers.org.uk Poster Competition 2012 / 2013; Domputer photos and amateur video; and more.
Get this episode: Math/Maths 119: Those Boffins, and their Science
Recreational Maths Seminar next Sunday at 7pm GMT
Having gathered a few data points about people’s availability for the recreational maths seminar, and heavily weighted towards my own, it looks like weekend evenings are the most convenient times for everyone to get together for the recreational maths seminar. So, let’s say 7pm GMT on Sunday evening, the 11th of November. That’s 2pm EST (New York), 11am PST (California) and 6am EDT (Eastern Australia, on the 12th of November).
Maths Careers Poster Competition 2012/2013
The IMA’s Maths Careers campaign runs a yearly competition for posters illustrating applications of maths. Entry for the 2012/13 competition has opened, and it’s on the theme of the planet Earth, to join in with the Mathematics of Planet Earth year 2013. UK students between the ages of 11 and 19 are invited to submit posters about “A planet to discover“, “A planet supporting life“, “A planet organised by humans” or “A planet at risk“.
The deadline for submissions is my birthday, the 14th of January, and the winners from the three age categories will each receive “an Android tablet”.
Find more info and the entry form on the Maths Careers website.
Walking on π in the NSF Visualization Challenge
Fran Aragón Artacho has emailed to tell us that he and Jon Borwein have entered their image of a walk on the first 100 billion digits of π in the National Science Foundation (of the USA)’s International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge. Fran says:
Jon Borwein and I have submitted our picture of a walk based on 100 billion digits of pi to a visualisation contest from the NSF (National Science Foundation). The winners will appear in Science (one will be selected for the front cover!). And we have good news: we are one of the 10 finalists in the Illustration category!