|
|
||
|
|
||
 |
Edited by Allyn Jackson, AMS
Contributors: Mike Breen (AMS), Claudia Clark (writer and editor), Lisa DeKeukelaere (2004 AMS Media Fellow), Annette Emerson (AMS), Brie Finegold (University of California, Santa Barbara), Adriana Salerno (University of Texas, Austin)
|
"US scientist gives Israeli prize to Palestinians," by Amy Teibel. Associated Press, 26 May 2008.
"Recipient of Israeli Math Award Gives Prize Money to Palestinian Academic Interests," by Matthew Kalman. News Blog, Chronicle of Higher Education, 26 May 2008.
"Calculus of Peace." Newsmakers, Science, 6 June 2008, page 1269.
Brown University mathematician and Fields Medalist David Mumford was one of three recipients of the 2008 Wolf Prize in Mathematics (the other two were Pierre Deligne and Phillip Griffiths, both of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton). The prize, presented by the Israel-based Wolf Foundation, carries a cash award of US$100,000. This article reports that Mumford decided to donate his share of the prize to Bir Zeit University, the West Bank's flagship university, and Gisha, an Israeli organization that works to protect the rights of Palestinian students in the Gaza Strip. Noting that he is not a political person, Mumford said he was motivated by his conviction that "higher education, access to mathematical knowledge, is something that should be shared and should be accessible to everyone." The Associated Press story was picked up by newspapers all over the world.
--- Allyn Jackson
"Number keys promise safer data." BBC News, 21 May 2008.
|
Amit Sahai, a computer scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, is developing an encryption scheme that will use mathematics to allow access to selected information in a file, such as portions of medical records, instead of to the whole file. This can be done now, but in a cumbersome way, which forces most companies to bypass the bother and allow unlimited access with one key. Sahai's method will use mathematics to improve the "one lock--one key" method. With the improved method a file could be encrypted once in an elegant way so that different people with different keys would have access to different parts of the file. --- Mike Breen
|
"American and Frenchman accept the 2008 Abel mathematics prize in Norway." The Associated Press, 20 May 2008.
"The Abel Prize Awarded Thompson and Tits," by Rolleiv Solholm. Norway Post, 22 May 2008.
|
John Griggs Thompson (pictured in the background at left) and Jacques Tits (foreground, left) received the 2008 Abel Prize in a ceremony in Oslo on May 20. The Prize, worth over US$1,000,000, was given by King Harald V of Norway (pictured congratulating Tits). The chair of the Abel Prize committee, Kristian Seip, said that the two shared the prize "for their outstanding achievements in algebra and especially for their shaping of modern group theory." Thompson now teaches at the University of Florida, while Tits is professor emeritus at the Collège de France in Paris. (Photo: Heiko Junge/Scanpix/The Abel Prize/The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.) --- Mike Breen
|
"The Intrigue of the Interface," by Mark W. Denny. Science, 16 May 2008, page 856.
"Drink Up," by Michelle Sipics. Boston Globe, 19 May 2008.
|
John Bush is an associate professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology whose research focuses on using nature's mechanisms and designs to create new technological ones. In his opinion, "most every problem you can imagine has been solved by nature." In the Science article ("Surface Tension Transport of Prey by Feeding Shorebirds: The Capillary Ratchet," pp. 931-4), which Denny provides a perspective on, Bush explores how shorebirds use surface tension to get their sustenance and the applications of this mechanism to technology. The particular shorebird studied, the phalarope, feeds by scooping up droplets of water that contain small crustaceans. Bush and his colleagues discovered that it does so by opening and nearly closing its beak very quickly, thus literally pulling these droplets into its mouth. The scientists replicated this by building stainless steel mechanical beaks that behaved very similarly. One insight they got by experimenting with different liquids is how pollution may affect these birds' ability to feed (e.g. a slippery beak is no good). The study also explores how this may be exploited in the realm of "microfluidics," which studies the motion of fluids at very small scales. Bush believes that by incorporating this ratcheting motion of the steel beaks, scientists might be able to increase the efficiency of droplet transport and eliminate the need for pumps in some microfluidic devices. --- Adriana Salerno
|
"Wie Babys Statistik anwenden können (How babies can use statistics)", by George Szpiro. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 18 May 2008.
This installment of Szpiro's monthly column about mathematics deals with the surprising ability of babies to draw statistical inferences about a group of objects, based on only a small sample, and with the fact that mathematical abilities can apparently be taught better by using abstract symbols and equations than by having recourse to practical examples.
--- Allyn Jackson
"Variationen zu einer Vermutung Eulers (Variation on a proof of Euler)", by George Szpiro. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 14 May 2008.
Recently physicist Lee Jacobi and mathematician Daniel Madden proved that there are inifinitely many integer solutions to the equation a4 + b4 + c4 d4 = (a + b + c + d)4. The article traces the history of this equation back to Pierre de Fermat and to Leonhard Euler. The proof by Jacobi and Madden appeared in 2008 in the American Mathematical Monthly.
--- Allyn Jackson
"Measuring The China Earthquake's Magnitude," by Carl Bialik. Numbers Guy Blog, Wall Street Journal, 12 May 2008.
|
Numbers generated by scientists and mathematicians are often tossed onto the pages of popular media with little mention of their origin or true significance. Commenting on and clarifying the meaning of these numbers is the job of journalist Carl Bialik, who recently won an award from the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics for his success in communicating mathematics to laypeople. Internet readers interested in subjects ranging from breastfeeding to baseball comment on his "Numbers Guy" blog frequently, and sometimes provide topics for later posts. While we may recognize that the recent magnitude 7.9 earthquake in China was devastating just from the number itself, Bialik discusses the physical meaning of the measurement in his 12 May 2008 post; magnitude takes into account both slip and the size of the fault along which the earth moved. Perhaps an even more important figure is the population near the epicenter of the quake, which is used by seismologists in estimating the damage caused. Examples illustrating the logarithmic nature of the scale end the entry, giving readers a visceral feeling for what a difference a few tenths can make in measuring the magnitude of a quake. --- Brie Finegold
|
"Some swans are grey," by Robert Matthews. New Scientist, 10 May 2008, pages 44-47.
This article begins with a discussion of the ideas of the philosopher of science Karl Popper, who identified the defining characteristic of science as falsifiability: An idea or theory can be called scientific only if there is a way to test whether it is false. This is not just an academic exercise. According to the article, there is a good deal of debate among physicists today about whether some ideas now arising in theoretical physics, such as the notion of the "multiverse", are falsifiable---that is, whether they are truly scientific. But Popper's definition of science might not reflect how science is really carried out. Scientists typically do not propose theories and then try to falsify them. Rather, they try to amass evidence for theories. Even when evidence seems to contradict a theory, scientists might hold onto the theory anyway; Matthews gives an example where Einstein insisted his own ideas were "more plausible" than the alternatives even when some experiments seemed to indicate that he was wrong. Matthews presents an alternative view to Popper's black-and-white definition of science that allows for more shades of gray. This view depends on Bayesian analysis, a branch of probability theory that allows one to weigh evidence for various theories in order to assess which theory seems the most plausible. Bayesian analysis "shows that seemingly implausible theories require a hefty weight of evidence before they can be taken seriously," Matthews writes. "The Bayesian view also gives vague or contrived theories that fit pretty much any data set a tough time in the quest for crediblity." Bayesian analysis is now getting more attention from philosophers of science, as well as from "scientists in fields from archaeology to zoology."
--- Allyn Jackson
"Victorville math students learn how trigonometry is used in crime scene investigations," by Melanie C. Johnson. Press-Enterprise, 9 May 2008.
|
Early in May, students at two San Bernardino, California, high schools got the chance to apply mathematics to investigating crime scenes. They learned about the geometry of blood spatter, and, given actual crime scene photos, applied this knowledge to the types of problems that actual investigators have to address, including cause of death and angle of impact. Three times a year, the San Bernardino County Sheriff Department's Scientific Investigations Division, along with the San Bernardino County Superintendent of School's Alliance for Education program, hosts field studies like this for area high school students. Kim Terry, the Alliance for Education's math curriculum specialist, emphasized the importance of increasing the graduation rate, in part by engaging students with relevant material that can answer the question: "When am I ever going to use this?" Math teacher Sharon Gollmyer sees how much students enjoy applying mathematics outside of the classroom: "It's in their faces. They are so intense... You can just see the future." And the students? Of those interviewed, one was considering forensics as a career, another wants to become a teacher, and all enjoyed the experience. High school junior Carmelina Figueroa commented that "I think it's pretty cool because we get to see what [these investigators] actually do and it's not a TV show." --- Claudia Clark
|
"Math Group Tries to Help Young Teachers Stay the Course," by Sean Cavanagh. Education Week, 7 May 2008.
While math teachers may not be quitting any more quickly than those in English, there are not nearly as many waiting in line to replace the defectors. This fact concerns the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, a group whose most recent conference in Salt Lake City included seminars dedicated to retaining new teachers. These seminars were created in response to surveys completed by incoming teachers who are often pressed for time to prepare their lessons and whose pay is not competitive with that of jobs requiring a similar skill level. The National Science Teachers Association has responded to a lack of new science teachers by launching new educational opportunities for incoming teachers and setting up student chapters at universities to help prepare and encourage prospective teachers. An encouraging quote from a new teacher cites her satisfaction with her job as being worth the pay cut, but how long will she remain this idealistic?
--- Brie Finegold
"Wishing for an African Einstein," by Daniel Clery, and "An African Showcase for Math Studies," by Robert Koenig. Science, 2 May 2008, pages 604-605.
In 2001, mathematical physicist Neil Turok visited his childhood home in South Africa after a 25-year absence. Turok was dismayed by the idea that, of the thousands of students who graduate from African universities with degrees in mathematics, "most are not able to find work and are frustrated because they can't do the interesting stuff." At the urging of his father, an anti-apartheid activist and member of the South African Parliament, Turok began planning and gathering support for what would become the African Institute for Mathematical Studies (AIMS) in Muizenberg, South Africa.
Currently, reports Koenig, 59 mathematics graduates from all over Africa are participating in the programs at AIMS doing this "interesting stuff": taking three-week intensive courses in pure math or physics as well as the "problem-solving realm of what [Institute director Fritz] Hahne calls 'relevant' mathematics---for example, related to bioinformatics, finance, or astronomy." In the process, Turok notes that they gain the confidence to pursue advanced degrees in South Africa, Europe, and North America. And of the 12 students interviewed by Science for this article, all plan to return to, and address problems in, their native lands.
--- Claudia Clark
"Fix Rochester schools `outside the box'," by Jonathan Farley. Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 14 May 2008.
"Confronting our `broken' math system," by Eric Gaze. Providence Journal, 2 May 2008.
In his essay, Caltech mathematician Jonathan Farley applies "thinking outside of the box" to come up with some unusual ideas for improving math and science teaching in public schools in his hometown of Rochester, New York. "We need to stop worrying so much about the `at risk' students and start worrying about the student who might become the next Benjamin Banneker, African-American mathematician and astronomer; or Ernest Everett Just, pioneering African-American biologist," Farley writes. "When these role models emerge, the rest will rise." Eric Gaze, a mathematician at Alfred University in New York state, takes a different viewpoint on the woeful state of math education in the U.S., commenting on the need for mathematical literacy among all students. "I have come to realize how illiterate we are when it comes to communicating with ratios, rates and percentages," he writes. "These are all middle-school math topics, so how do students get through high-school math without mastering them?" Gaze describes a new master's degree program at Alfred University, which shows future teachers of all subjects how to infuse mathematical literacy into their teaching.
--- Allyn Jackson
"A life of unexpected twists takes her from farm to math department," by Billy Baker. The Boston Globe, 28 April 2008.
|
This article describes the unlikely journey of Gigliola Staffilani from a six-year old girl in rural Italy who had never seen a book, to being the only female full professor in the MIT mathematics department at age 42. "Downplaying her own mathematical gifts," she humbly credits luck and the help of multiple people for her success. As a young girl, in part due to her older brother's influence, she dreamed of becoming a famous scientist. Despite her mother's reluctance, she went to high school and college (for the latter she had a fellowship that didn't cover housing, so she lived in the hallway of a palace run by nuns), and excelled in mathematics. She applied to graduate school at the University of Chicago and got in, but was rejected upon arrival because she hadn't passed her TOEFL (Test of English as Foreign Language). Refusing to go back to Italy, she hung around the math department until they accepted her (they expected her to quit in a couple of weeks, but she stuck). The only moment when she considered quitting was when she realized she couldn't pay for tuition, but legendary math professor Paul Sally rescued her by writing her a check for US$1000, stating that she was a "true talent" and just "needed some help." She went on to impress more people at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton while doing post-doc work, at Stanford on a tenure-track position, and ultimately at MIT, were she got tenure at age 36. Upon reflecting on her life's path, she simply says: "My life should have gone any other way than it did." --- Adriana Salerno
|
"Math Discovered or Invented?" by Joshua Hill. Canada Free Press, 28 April 2008.
Do numbers and other mathematical objects exist independently of our conception of them? In an upcoming issue of the European Mathematical Society Newsletter, many professionals will weigh in on the age-old question. According to the Platonist view, mathematical concepts are the underpinnings of our world and are therefore lying quietly until they are discovered. But some find that this leads to a theistic viewpoint and thus dismiss Platonism. As philosophical questions riddle mathematics, it will be interesting to see the musings of mathematicians on non-provable theories such as Platonism.
--- Brie Finegold
"Bad Math = Mad Politics," by Carl Bialik. Numbers Guy Blog, Wall Street Journal Online, 25 April 2008.
In this article, "Numbers Guy" Carl Bialik writes about the mathematical formulas that have been used to determine the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the ongoing disagreement about each formula's fairness. As Bialik notes, the Constitution guarantees each state proportional representation in the House relative to its population. However, as early as 1791, a problem became apparent: what is done when the calculation results in a noninteger?
The first method used, the Jefferson method, is one of five so-called "divisor methods." Using this method, the apportionment for each state was determined by dividing each state's population by a number x such that the sum of all of the rounded-down quotients equaled the number of house seats. Unfortunately, it favored the most populous states.
The Hamilton method, used between 1852 and 1901, calculated each state's apportionment by dividing that state's population by the national population, multiplying that number by the total number of House seats, rounding down the results, then distributing y remaining seats to the y states with the largest fractional parts. The problem? It resulted in a paradox: Alabama lost a seat after the House size increased!
The Webster method, used in 1842 and from 1901 to 1941, is similar to the Jefferson method, but x was chosen so that the sum of all of the numbers, rounded up or down to the nearest whole number, equaled the number of House seats. With the Hill method---in use since 1941---x is chosen so that the sum of all of the numbers, rounded to the nearest whole number by geometric mean, equals the number of House seats.
In concluding the article, Bialik includes quotes 3 mathematicians, each of whom favors a different method.
--- Claudia Clark
"Mapmaker for the World of Influenza," by Martin Enserink. Science, 18 April 2008, pages 310-311.
Derek Smith is using mathematics to help epidemiologists keep us sniffle-free in the coming years. Smith applies his math expertise to create maps of influenza strains, which epidemiologists use when trying to determine which strain will be dominant next winter, so that the pharmaceutical companies can produce enough vaccine to combat it. In order to track flu strains and the differences between them, epidemiologists measure how well the antibodies an immune system generates to fight a known strain of the virus fare in the fight against a new strain. Smith saw these measurements—gathered into large, complex tables detailing the relative "distance" between the strains—as the perfect opportunity to create a map that would help epidemiologists by providing them with a way to visualize and understand the difference between the strains. Smith’s work led to an invitation by the World Health Organization to attend its small vaccination selection meeting each year.
--- Lisa DeKeukelaere
"Frustration in Complexity," by P.-M. Binder. Science, 18 April 2008, pages 322-323.
There are many examples of complex systems: genetic algorithms, computers, the immune system, the brain, protein folding, and the stock market. What the author of the article points out is that even though "we know it when we see it," it is very difficult, even frustrating, to define exactly what scientists mean by "complexity." One common criterion has been cooperative behavior, or how global patterns arise from the way smaller parts interact with each other. Recently, "frustration" has emerged as a more general unifying theme, but it's a concept that's still not well-defined. A good example of dynamical frustration is a model in which three spins (just imagine arrows pointing up or down) are placed at the vertices of a triangle, and one wants to have all of them be anti-aligned with each other. Since this is impossible, we achieve "frustration." There are three well-studied manifestations of frustration. It can be of a geometric nature (like the famous Lorenz attractor), it can arise from having opposing tendencies at different scales, or it can be of a computational nature. These three groups are known not to be independent from each other, so indeed dynamical frustration might be the unifying thread that scientists who study complexity are searching for. There are other pieces to fit into the puzzle, like the fact that nonlinearity and dimensionality play an important role. Eventually, the author concludes, this might turn into the "queen of all sciences," since complex systems seem to explain so much of our world.
--- Adriana Salerno
"Geometrical Music Theory," by Rachel Wells Hall. Science, 18 April 2008, pages 328-329.
"The shape of Beethoven's Ninth," by Davide Castelvecchi. ScienceNews, 24 May 2008, page 13.
|
Recent research by Clifton Callendar, Ian Quinn, and Dmitri Tymoczko---all three of whom work in academic music departments---shows a novel way of using geometry to map out a musical score. Using mathematics, and even geometry, to study music is not new, but the three authors present a way to look at each moment in time in a musical score, like a vertical snapshot of the written music, as a point in n-space, where n is the number of "voices," or instrumental parts, in the piece. Callendar’s work also demonstrates how the mathematical concept of equivalence classes---a group of objects sharing a single property---can be applied to music. According to the reviewer, the new research may lead to new methods for teaching and visualizing music. (The research article, "Generalized Voice-Leading Spaces," starts on page 346 of the same issue.) At left: Musical orbifold, ordered pairs of pitch classes, courtesy of Rachel Wells Hall. --- Lisa DeKeukelaere
|
| Math Digest Archives 2008 || 2007 || 2006 || 2005 || 2004 || 2003 || 2002 || 2001 || 2000 || 1999 || 1998 || 1997 || 1996 || 1995
Click here for a list of links to web pages of publications covered in the Digest. |
 |
Comments: webmaster@ams.org |