Mathematics: rigorous, tedious, fantastic, fairy-like

What strikes me about the following quote from Scientific American in 1908 is the opinionated, chatty, subjective, silly, and nearly-trivial tone which so often is blamed on the recent influence of blogging. There ain’t nothing new under the sun.

Mathematics is the most exact and the most thoroughly grounded of the sciences. And yet, in the [...]

The meaning of scientific literacy

The promotion of scientific and mathematical literacy is always to be applauded. Looking at the world honestly, and drawing conclusions based on the evidence, are two important skills for making a human whole. Alone, they lead to a lifeless vision of terrifying sterility, but combined with compassion, creativity, imagination, and love, they have the power [...]

Scientific Fundamentalism

The September 2007 edition of Physics World, the in-house magazine of the Institute of Physics, featured an article by Joanne Brunker entitled “Physglish: our coded speech”. This was one of a series of short essays under the heading “Lateral Thoughts”, essays supposed to be a bit fun and to provoke some thinking in the [...]

All quiet on the matheblogical front

Things have been rather quiet on the blog lately; my apologies. I’m off to a conference next week - the first time I’ll be speaking at a big conference in about four years - and what with that and a long break coming up over Xmas (during which laptop will be banned by a Significant [...]

Stunning math video

Here I am rambling into the void while real mathematicians (in this case Arnold and Rogness) are producing exquisite works of modern mathematical art like this one:

Thanks to Richard Brown for bringing this to my attention. Another great math video is over here.

geometry: outside in

Well, I think it is high time we had some good old Really Hard Sums. Of course, these Sums mentioned in the address of this blog are what many people think I do all day, when truth be told mathematical thinking is much more about patterns, symmetry, and beauty. I cannot say it better nor [...]

Blogging the God particle

Blogs and blogging. If you weren’t interested, you wouldn’t be here.
Science and the communication of science. If you weren’t interested, you wouldn’t be here.
One of the most important discoveries of modern physics may be happening right now (these things take time), and the tantalising clues have been revealed in blogs. Read all about it.
(The Institute [...]

A mythological history of science

The philosopher Robert P Crease, writing in this month’s Physics World magazine, brings to light an interesting phenomenon amongst professional scientists: the mythologization of scientific history. The apple that fell on Newton’s head, Galileo dropping balls from the Leaning Tower of Pisa: these and others reveal something both interesting, and perhaps slightly dangerous, in the [...]