Math Digest

Summaries of Media Coverage of Math

Edited by Allyn Jackson, AMS
Contributors: Mike Breen (AMS), Claudia Clark (freelance science writer), Lisa DeKeukelaere (2004 AMS Media Fellow), Annette Emerson (AMS), Brie Finegold (University of California, Santa Barbara), Adriana Salerno (University of Texas, Austin)

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2008 Math Digest

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August 2008

• Obituaries for Henri Cartan, August 2008
• "Top-seeded Ivanovic loses in huge upset at US Open," USA Today, 28 August 2008
• "Algebra---it's everywhere," San Francisco Chronicle, 25 August 2008
• "Russians dent Google's world domination," TimesOnline, 24 August 20008
• "Die perfekte 400-Meter-Laufbahn (The perfect 400-meter track)", Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 24 August 2008
• "A head for figures", New Scientist, 23 August 2008
• "Chinese math students believe destiny is in the numbers," NBC Nightly News, aired 20 August 2008
• "Spencer Peak added to Colorado mountain lexicon," Denver Post, 18 August 2008;
  "San Juans peak named in honor of local activist," Durango Telegraph, 28 August 2008
• "Why do erudite people boast of blissful ignorance of maths?", Irish Times, 16 August 2008
• "Decrypting God's Language, and Other Items From Professors' Crackpot Files," Chronicle of Higher Education, 15 August 2008
• "Madison High teen known for his brilliance in math wins US$50K scholarship," The Daily Record, 14 August 2008
• "Canadian Mathematicians, Grad Students to Fight AIDS with Numbers," Macleans OnCampus, 13 August 2008
• "Cal scientists on the trail of invisibility," San Francisco Chronicle, 12 August 2008;
  "Light bent the wrong way--can an invisibility cloak be far behind?" by J.R. Minkel. Scientific American, 12 August 2008;
  "Scientists Engineer Material That Bends Light," by Jessica Berman. Voice of America News, 12 August 2008.
  "Invisibility-Cloak Materials Bend Light 'Backward'," by Brian Handwerk. National Geographic, 12 August 2008.
  "Muggles A Step Closer To Creating Invisibility Cloak," on Morning Edition. National Public Radio, 12 August 2008.
• "Educators Peer Over Students' Shoulders at Mich. Math Lab," Education Week, 11 August 2008
• "On trail of elusive carbon footprint," Chicago Tribune, 10 August 2008
• "Simon Phillips Norton: Travelling by Numbers," Daily Telegraph (U.K.), 8 August 2008
• "The Science of Doping," Nature, 7 August 2008
• "Celebrities," Science, 1 August 2008
• "Settling the Score," Popular Science, August 2008

July 2008

• Articles on math and gender, July 2008
• "Was ancient Greek 'computer' an astronomical tool?," New Scientist, 30 July 2008;
  "Complex clock combines calendars," Nature, 31 July 2008;
  "Discovering How Greeks Computed in 100 B.C.," New York Times, 31 July 2008
• "A tale of two tilings," Nature, 24 July 2008
• "A Building of Bubbles," Science News, 19 July 2008
• "Brazil's Pirahã grasp numbers without words," Science News, 19 July 2008
  "We are natural born mathematicians," The Telegraph, 18 August 2008
• "Obama's shifts could be costly," Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 17 July 2008
• "Einstein, Plato... and you?", The Telegraph, 15 July 2008
• "In search of a beautiful mind," Boston Globe, 12 July 2008
• "Before Microsoft, Gates Solved a Pancake Problem," Morning Edition, National Public Radio, 4 July 2008
• "Art Authentication," NOVA ScienceNow, PBS, 2 July 2008
• "Why Laughing Matters," Discover, July 2008
• "The Self-Organizing Quantum Universe," Scientific American, July 2008
• "Simple Groups at Play," Scientific American, July 2008
• "Under Fire," National Geographic, July 2008

June 2008

• "When her numbers are up, it's bad news," Boston Globe, 30 June 2008
• Articles about study on preparation of math teachers, June 2008
• "Nabbing suspicious SNPs," Science News, 21 June 2008
• "Just Like the CBS Drama NUMB3RS: Police Use Math to Crack the Case," WPEC-TV, 20 June 2008
• "Film crystallizes life of Nobel winner Hauptman," Buffalo Business First, 20 June 2008
• "The MPG Illusion," Science, 20 June 2008
• "Universal law of coiling," Nature, 19 June 2008
• "Playing by numbers," Nature, 19 June 2008
• "Professor Finds the Art in Both Numbers and Letters: A Conversation with Manil Suri," New York Times, 17 June 2008
• "18-Year-Old is World's Youngest College Professor," Voice of America, 16 June 2008
• "The Mathematical Mirror to Animal Nature," Nature, 14 June 2008
• "Students show their smarts at international science fair," Science News, 7 June 2008;
  "New Math Theorem Takes Second Place at Intel Science Fair," Calgary Herald, 12 June 2008
• "What are the odds?: Excerpt from The Drunkard’s Walk," The Week Daily, 6 June 2008
• "Most influential women scientist search is on," Daily Telegraph, 6 June 2008
• "Astronomy Study Proves Mathematics Theorem," NewScientist, 5 June 2008
  "Accidental Astrophysicists," Science News Online, 13 June 2008
  "Die Lösung steht in den Sternen (The solution lies in the stars)", Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 20 July 2008
• Articles on knitting and crocheting mathematical objects, June and July 2008
• "Digital Image Forensics," Scientific American, June 2008;
  "Profile: Hany Farid," NOVA ScienceNOW, PBS, 25 June 2008

May 2008

• "Wagering with Zero," American Scientist, May/June 2008
• Articles about David Mumford donating his share of the Wolf Prize to Palestinian causes, May and June 2008
• "The Science of Fun," The Guardian (U.K.), 31 May 2008
• "Math Skills for Nonmajors Don't Add Up," Chronicle of Higher Education, 30 May 2008
• "Vital statistics," The Economist, 29 May 2008;
  "Culture, Gender, and Math," Science, 30 May 2008;
  "Gender equality helps girls with math, study says," Philadephia Inquirer, 30 May 2008
• "Number keys promise safer data",BBC News, 21 May 2008
• "American and Frenchman accept the 2008 Abel mathematics prize in Norway", The Associated Press, 20 May 2008;
  "The Abel Prize Awarded Thompson and Tits," Norway Post, 22 May 2008
• "The Intrigue of the Interface," Science, 16 May 2008
  "Drink Up," Boston Globe, 19 May 2008
• "Wie Babys Statistik anwenden können (How babies can use statistics)", Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 18 May 2008
• "Tones from Ancient Greece," Science, 16 May 2008
• "Variationen zu einer Vermutung Eulers (Variation on a proof of Euler)", Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 14 May 2008
• "Measuring The China Earthquake's Magnitude," Wall Street Journal, 12 May 2008
• "Some swans are grey," New Scientist, 10 May 2008
• "Victorville math students learn how trigonometry is used in crime scene investigations," Press-Enterprise, 9 May 2008
• "Math Group Tries to Help Young Teachers Stay the Course," Education Week, 7 May 2008
• "Wishing for an African Einstein" and "An African Showcase for Math Studies," Science, 2 May 2008
• "Fix Rochester schools `outside the box'," Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 14 May 2008;
  "Confronting our `broken' math system," Providence Journal, 2 May 2008

April 2008

• "A life of unexpected twists takes her from farm to math department," The Boston Globe, 28 April 2008
• "Math Discovered or Invented?" Canada Free Press, 28 April 2008
• "Study Suggests Math Teachers Scrap Balls and Slices," New York Times, 25 April 2008
• "Bad Math = Mad Politics," Wall Street Journal Online, 25 April 2008
• "Mapmaker for the World of Influenza," Science, 18 April 2008
• "Frustration in Complexity," Science, 18 April 2008
• "Geometrical Music Theory," Science, 18 April 2008;
  "The shape of Beethoven's Ninth," ScienceNews, 24 May 2008
• "Edward N. Lorenz, 90; scientist developed influential chaos theory," Los Angeles Times, 18 April 2008
  "Eye for Detail." Newsmakers, Science, 25 April 2008
• "Awards," Science, 18 April 2008
• "The Quirky Math of Voting: Oddities and Anomolies are always possible," Philadelphia Inquirer, 13 April 2008
• "Random Stock Market Quite Ordered," Daily News and Analysis, 12 April 2008
• "Creeping Up on Riemann," Science News Online, 5 April 2008
• "Doing the iPod Shuffle," NPR Weekend Edition, 5 April 2008
• "Creating Musical Variation," Science, 4 April 2008
• "Building a mechanical calculator from 19th century plans," Computer World Australia, 4 April 2008
  "Difference Engine No. 2--No. 2," Scientific American, July 2008
• Articles on Aztec math, April 2008
• "At the Edge of Life's Code," Scientific American, April 2008

March 2008

• Two reviews of Flatland: The Movie, New Scientist, 29 March 2008
• "In höhere Dimensionen (In higher dimensions)," Die Zeit, 28 March 2008;
  "Verschollenes Genie (Missing Genius)," Neues Zürcher Zeitung, 27 April 2008
  "Sensitivity to the Harmony of Things," Science News, 9 May 2008
• Articles about the 2008 Abel Prize, March 2008
• Articles on report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, March 2008
• "Paola Antonelli + Benoit Mandelbrot": A conversation, Seed Magazine, 24 March 2008
• "Prime suspect", New Scientist, 22 March 2008
• "Women in Math? City Tech Profs Say We Need More," Brooklyn Eagle, 21 March 2008
• "Math Major Explains Method to March Madness", National Public Radio, 20 March 2008;
  "CofC Students Predict 'Final Four' Using Math Calculations," WCSC-TV, 22 March 2008
• "Arthur C. Clarke, 90, Science Fiction Writer, Dies," New York Times, 19 March 2008
• "Let's talk about figures," The Economist, 19 March 2008
• "His puzzling avocation is no trivial pursuit," Boston Globe, 17 March 2008
• "Cryptologists Cook Up Some Hash for New 'Bake-Off'," Science, 14 March 2008
• "In U.S. Politics, Party Rule Flips Like Clockwork," Discovery Channel News, 13 March 2008
• "All eyes on the Amazon": Interview with Carlos Nobre, Nature, 13 March 2008
• "Africa Steps Up Efforts to Train Top Scientists," Chronicle of Higher Education, 7 March 2008
• "Want to Save a Coral Reef? Bring Along Your Crochet Needles," New York Times, 4 March 2008
• "Are Our Brains Wired for Math?", New Yorker, 3 March 2008
• "A Mathematical Tragedy: Sophie Germain had a bold program to prove Fermat's Last Theorem," Science News Online, Week of 1 March 2008;
  "NMSU professor unearths manuscripts of first female mathematics researcher," Las Cruces Sun-News, 24 March 2008
• "The Unknown Einstein", special issue of Discover, March 2008

February 2008

• "Strict Ordering Slashes Tarmac Time," Nature, 28 February 2008
• "Teaching a computer to appreciate art," msnbc.com, 25 February 2008
• "Casino Security: Counting a legend," Las Vegas Review-Journal, 25 February 2008
• "An Attack on Fermat," Science News Online, Week of 23 February 2008
• "Maths in action": Review of How Round is Your Circle?, by John Bryant and Chris Sangwin, New Scientist, 23 February 2008
• "Looking behind the numbers": Interview with John Ioannidis, New Scientist, 16 February 2008
• Articles about sessions at the 2008 Joint Mathematics Meetings, Science, 15 February 2008
• "Baseball's Devil May Not Be in the Details," New York Times, 10 February 2008
• "Russian immigrant solves math puzzle," The Jerusalem Post, 8 February 2008;
  "Israeli immigrant solves 38-year-old math problem," Israel 21C, 18 February 2008
• "How Much is a Trillion?" Science Friday, National Public Radio, 8 February 2008
• "A Human Rights Statistician Finds Truth in the Numbers," Christian Science Monitor, 7 February 2008;
  "The Forensic Humanitarian," New York Times Magazine, 17 February 2008
• "On the Job: Math mavens seek solutions", Poughkeepsie Journal, 5 February 2008
• "Microsoft Adds Research Lab in East as Others Cut Back," New York Times, 4 February 2008
• "No god required": Review of Irreligion, by John Allen Paulos, New Scientist, 2 February 2008
• "In the Movies," Science, 1 February 2008
• "When Math Warps Elections," Newsweek, 4 February 2008

January 2008

• "Math + Religion = Trouble", Toronto Star, 26 January 2008
• "Benjamin Franklin Plays Sudoku," Science News Online, 26 January 2008
• "Berkeley math institute celebrates 25 years," San Francisco Chronicle, 25 January 2008
• "Math is a ball!", ABC6 TV Action News, 25 January 2008
• "Lazy option is best when waiting for the bus", New Scientist, 23 January 2008;
  "Wann es sich lohnt, auf das Tram zu warten (When it pays to wait for the bus)", Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 24 February 2008
• "Celia Hoyles: the magic of numbers", The Guardian (UK), 22 January 2008
• "The maths behind group showers," Nature News, 18 January 2008
• "Alan Alda tackles 'MATH'---and science---in conversation," San Francisco Chronicle, 17 January 2008;
  "Popular science in a cafe scene," Contra Costa Times, 22 January 2008
• "If You Don't Know Your Math, You'll End Up Taking a Bath," Wall Street Journal, 16 January 2008
• "A Mathematical Gem," Science, 18 January 2008;
  "Diamond's chiral chemical cousin," spectroscopyNOW.com, 15 January 2008;
  "Perfect as a Diamond", Research Highlights, Nature Materials volume 7, number 2, 2008.
• "Nerds, geeks, superstars," Sydney Morning Herald, 13 January 2008
• "Small Infinity, Big Infinity," Science News Online, 12 January 2008
• "Mathematician Proposes Another Way of Divvying Up the US House," Nature News, 8 January 2008
• "Zahlen und Formeln sind die heimlichen Herrscher des 21. Jahrhunderts (Numbers and formulas are the secret rulers of the 21st century)", Welt am Sonntag, 6 January 2008
• "Free journal-ranking tool enters citation market," Nature, 3 January 2008
• Math in "The Year in Science 2007," Discover, January 2008
• "Why do strings of holiday lights end up in giant knots?", Popular Science, January 2008
• "Formula For Disaster," WIRED, January 2008

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