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 (Bates College)

2009 Math Digest

December 2009

• "Why certain shapes are more pleasing to the eye," Independent, 22 December 2009
• "Weather pioneer was well ahead of his time," Times & Transcript, 21 December 2009
• "For real: Mukilteo High teacher wins country music contest," The Seattle Times, 20 December 2009
• "Rekindling the gender-bias debate," Nature, 17 December 2009
  
• "Alice's adventures in algebra: Wonderland solved," New Scientist, 16 December 2009
• Articles on a formula for perfect parallel parking: "British Mathematician Perfects Parallel Parking," National Public Radio Morning Edition, 15 December 2009; and "Scientists create formula for perfect parking," Telegraph, 11 December 2009
• "The 9th Annual Year in Ideas," The New York Times Magazine, 13 December, 2009
• "Mammogram Math," The New York Times Magazine, 13 December 2009
• "A 19th-Century Mathematician Finally Proves Himself," National Public Radio Morning Edition, 10 December 2009
• "Grigori Perelman's Beautiful Mind": Review of Perfect Rigor: A Genius and the Mathematical Breakthrough of the Century, by Masha Gessen. The New York Times, 10 December 2009
• Articles on the 2009 Siemens Competition winners: "Paly senior takes second place in math competition," Mercury News, 9 December 2009; and "Austin Student's Team Wins National Science Competition," Austin American-Statesman, 8 December 2009
• "Mathematics By Collaboration," Science News, 8 December 2009
• "The Circular Logic of the Universe," The New York Times, 8 December 2009
• "The Fundamental Lemma, Solved," Time, 8 December 2009
• "Scientific Observations." Science News, 5 December 2009
  
• Articles on Between the Folds: "Filmmaker Vanessa Gould Goes Between the Folds of Origami World," Wall Street Journal Blog, 5 December 2009; "Origami and the art of the process," New York Post, 30 November 2009; "Arthouse films,"Chicago Sun Times, 27 November 2009
• "The Answer Man,” Popular Science, December 2009
• "The Year of Living Scientifically," Discover, December 2009
• "Reckoning with Newton---World Premiere of Carl Djerassi's and Isabella Gregor's Play Verrechnet! in Vienna," bridges, December 2009

November 2009

• "Empathy provides X factor in GED tutoring program," Chicago Tribune, 29 November 2009
• "Invisibility Uncloaked," Science News, 21 November 2009
• Recent Math Masters Columns, The Age, November 2009
• "America’s Top College Professor," Wall Street Journal, 13 November 2009
• "Lincoln East top team at Math Day; LSW's Zhou top individual," Lincoln Journal Star, 12 November 2009
• "Q&A: The algorist," Nature, 12 November 2009
• Recent articles on the state of mathematics education
• "Quantum Computers Could Tackle Enormous Linear Equations," Science News, 7 November 2009
  "Warp-Speed Algebra," Scientific American, January 2010
• “Russia’s Conquering Zeros,” The Wall Street Journal, 6 November 2009
• "Somer Thompson's murder: A real-life 'Numb3rs' case?," True Crime Examiner, 5 November 2009
• "The Numbers Guy: Coincidental Obscenity Deemed Extremely Dubious," The Wall Street Journal, 5 November 2009
• “Tomorrow’s Weather: Cloudy, with a chance of fractals,” New Scientist, 4 November 2009
• “Alice Schafer, 94; math professor breached social barriers,” Boston Globe, 2 November 2009
• "The Brain," Discover Magazine, November 2009
• "Crash Test Anti-Dummy," Popular Science, November 2009

October 2009

• "Game equals fun, money for math students," Augusta Chronicle, 30 October 2009
• "Correspondence in Flux": Review of The Calculus of Friendship by Steven Strogatz, Science, 30 October 2009
• "Number-Crushing: When Figures Get Personal," Wall Street Journal Online, 28 October 2009
• "How maths makes the world go round," The Telegraph, 26 October 2009
• "10 jobs for math whizzes," CareerBuilder. CNN Living, 26 October 2009
• Maths Masters columns by Burkard Polster and Marty Ross: "What is the best way to lace your shoes?", The Age, 26 October 2009; "Melbourne Grammar mystery map," The Age, 19 October 2009; "How to murder a mathematician," The Age, 12 October 2009
• Articles about Martin Gardner
• "Canal-side pilgrimage recalls inspired piece of vandalism," Irish Times, 17 October 2009
• "The Big Gamble in the Saudi Desert," Science, 16 October 2009
• "Prime Number: .064," New York Times, 16 October 2009
• "Hedge Firm Says Chief Will Retire," New York Times, 9 October 2009
• "Two Doors and a Goat": Review of The Monty Hall Problem: The Remarkable Story of Math's Most Contentious Brain Teaser by Jason Rosenhouse. Science, 9 October 2009
• "Some See Numerical Oddity in Pollster's Election Results," Wall Street Journal, 7 October 2009
• "New Tack on Math Promoted," Education Week, 7 October 2009
• "A Trillion Triangles," U.S. News & World Report, 6 October 2009
• "Nonprofit group takes on math problem," San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 October 2009
• "Math-averse pupils are drawn to computer program's cartoon penguin," Kansas City Star, 3 October 2009
• "Winning an Ig Nobel Beats a sharp blow to the skull, Maybe," Chronicle of Higher Education, 1 October 2009

September 2009

• "Algorithm and blues:" review of Logicomix, by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou. New York Times, 27 September 2009
• "Fold Everything," National Geographic Magazine, 15 September 2009
• "Google works on a different web," Science News, 26 September 2009
• "Erasing Dark Energy," Seed, 24 September 2009
• "Mathematics expert: IRV not the answer," Minnesota Public Radio, 23 September 2009
• "'Genius' Mathematician Seeks New Problems," an interview with Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan. National Public Radio's All Things Considered, 22 September 2009
• "Go forth and multiply," Adelaide Now..., 17 September 2009
• "Super-30 Founder in Limca World Record Book." PatnaDaily.com, 16 September 2009
• "OK Derren, now tell us how you REALLY did it: Experts pour scorn on illusionist's explanation," Daily Mail, 12 September 2009
• “The Mysterious Equilibrium of Zombies…and Other Things Mathematicians See at the Movies,” The Boston Globe, 6 September 2009.
• Articles about British government's apology for its treatment of Alan Turing
• "5 College Majors On the Rise: Computational Science," and "How They Did It," The Chronicle of Higher Education, 4 September 2009
• "Family Album," by Brian Hayes, American Scientist, September-October 2009, page 427, and "Inside the Mathematical Mind," Seed Magazine, 21 July 2009.
• “Origin of Computing,” Scientific American, September 2009
• "Origins," a series of articles by various authors. Scientific American, September 2009
• "Applied Math," a collection of new applications of mathematics, Popular Science, September 2009.

August 2009

• Two articles on results from the 2009 Joint Statistical Meetings, Science News, 29 August 2009
• "Who Should Get Swine Flu Shots First?", Time, 21 August 2009, and "Vaccinate students, parents first: study," Ottawa Citizen, 20 August 2009
• "It's Your Beautiful Eyes," GadsdenTimes, 20 August 2009
• "Who Will Win In Human, Zombie War?," National Public Radio All Things Considered, 20 August 2009
• "A tight squeeze," Nature, 13 August 2009
• "Earth Science From the Sky: The Next Generation," National Public Radio Morning Edition, 12 August 2009
• "The economy needs agent-based modelling,” Nature, 6 August 2009
• "Six Degrees of Nolan Ryan: Network Science Ranks Baseball Greats," Wired, 4 August 2009
• "Dark energy may disguise shape of universe," New Scientist, 3 August 2009
• "Too Much Happiness," Harper's, August 2009

July 2009

• "Mathematical Biology Education: Beyond Calculus," Science, 31 July 2009
• Articles about Rejecta Mathematica:
  - "Huddled Maths," Economist, 29 July 2009;
  - "Turning Rejection Into Success?" Random Samples, Science, 31 July 2009 (page 521);
  - "Hear the One About the Rejected Mathematician?" on Tweed (blog), Chronicle of Higher Education, 12 August 2009
• "Nancy Margried: Batik + Math = Innovation," The Jakarta Post, 27 July 2009
• "A Good Sign," Science, 24 July 2009
• "Scientific Observations," Science News, 18 July 2009
• "Mathematician discovers 'potentially disastrous' soccer rule flaw," National Post, 11 July 2009
• "Statistical Tests Suggestive of Fraud in Iran's Election," Science News, 10 July 2009
• Coverage of honoring of Bletchley Park code-breakers
• "Not luck of the draw, just some good math," The Nashua Telegraph, 8 July 2009;
  "Math teacher played the odds, won a million," The Cabinet (Milford, NH), 9 July 2009
• "Marie Curie voted top female boffin," The Register, 2 July 2009
• "Geek Chic: A Matter of Fractals," The New York Times' The Moment Blog, 2 July 2009
• "The Best Bits," American Scientist, July-August 2009
• "Of Beauty, Sex and Power," American Scientist, July-August 2009

June 2009

• "Attack of the Toaster Oven," The New York Times, 25 June 2009
• "Animals that count: How numeracy evolved," New Scientist, 23 June 2009
• "The mathmagicians," The Age, 19 June 2009
• "Serpentine Steps," Nature, 18 June 2009;
  "Scales provide a smoother slither," Science News, 4 July 2009
• "A Calculating Web Site Could Ignite a New Campus 'Math War'," The Chronicle of Higher Education, 12 June 2009;
  "Sum Help: New Search Engine for Mathletes," The Wall Street Journal, 17 June 2009
• Coverage of Glen Whitney and his goal to create a math museum
• "Revenge of the Nerd," Newsweek, 8 June 2009
• "Connecticut District Tosses Algebra Textbooks and Goes Online," The New York Times, 8 June 2009
• "The Thinkers: RMU professor finds beauty in math," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1 June 2009
• "Game Theory Meets Darwin," Discover, June 2009

May 2009

• "Danica McKellar Makes Math Vacation-Friendly," NPR’s Talk of the Nation, 29 May 2009
• "Forget Tom Hanks. Meet the Real Professor Langdon," The Chronicle of Higher Education, 29 May 2009
• "Iraq-born teen cracks math puzzle," Yahoo! News, 28 May 2009
• "Neues aus dem Reich der Primzahlen (News from the kingdom of prime numbers)", Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 27 May 2009
• "The crisis in math, science," The Boston Globe, 21 May 2009
• Coverage of Mikhail Gromov Receiving the 2009 Abel Prize
• "The Odds of Deal or No Deal,", BBC News, 18 May 2009
• "Art tied up," Nature, 14 May 2009
• "Q&A: Origami Unfolded," Nature, 14 May 2009
• "Maths can be fun---if only it's taught properly," 13 May 2009
• "Seventh-graders create iPhone app," Chicago Sun Times, 11 May 2009;
  "MathTime: Hinsdale kids design math app for iPhone," Chicago Tribune, 25 May 2009
• "Plugging Holes in the Science of Forensics," New York Times, 11 May 2009
• "It May Seem Confusing But Autonomy Can Help," Times Online, 11 May 2009
• "Experimente mit dem Computer (Experiments with the computer)", Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 10 May 2009
• "Out of Work in Finance, They Turn to Teaching," New York Times, 7 May 2009
• "Math outside the classroom: Keeping them hooked," Vancouver Sun, 7 May 2009
• "Jonathan Ross tops the Twitter 'Most Influential' List," Telegraph, 6 May 2009
• "Predicting Flu with the Aid of (George) Washington," New York Times, 4 May 2009;
  "Swine Flu Simulation Predicts 1,700 Cases By June," NPR (blog), 1 May 2009
• "Hidden riddle of shapes solved," Nature News, 1 May 2009;
  "Hypersphere Exotica," Scientific American, August 2009
• "Math Machine makes debut at Marshall," West Virginia Public Broadcasting, 1 May 2009
• Reviews of Wolfram Alpha, May 2009
• Recent columns by Marcus du Sautoy, May 2009
• "Fermi, Pasta, Ulam, and the Birth of Experimental Mathematics," American Scientist, May-June 2009

April 2009

• "'Numbers' [sic] Defies Naysayers", and "Caltech Proves Hospitable to Filming," Variety, 30 April 2009;
  "Hawking Counts 'Numb3rs' as a Fave," New York Daily News, 1 May 2009
• "'Rappin' Mathematician' meets the president as Teacher of the Year finalist," North County Times, 28 April 2009
• "Are Some Breast-Feeding Claims Overblown?" ABC News, 27 April 2009
• "Alarm at Australian Research Council 'restrictions'," The Australian, 22 April 2009
• "The Numbers Say Robinson Was Bold, to Little Effect," New York Times, 19 April 2009
• "Return of the Native," Science, 17 April 2009
• "Inside the tangled world of string theory", New Scientist, 15 April 2009
• "IBM Makes Math Cool, Current," eWeek.com, 15 April 2009
• "Mining for the 'Prime Jewels' of Numbers", NPR, 10 April 2009
• "Berkeley Math Circle Takes Teens to New Dimensions," Voice of America News, 8 April 2009
• "Freeman Dyson's 4th-Grade Math Puzzle," and "Puzzle Answers From a 4th-Grader and Freeman Dyson," New York Times, 6 and 10 April 2009
• "Phillies Will Contend: So Says the Math Man," Philadelphia Inquirer, 6 April 2009
• "State wades into debate about how to best teach math", Star-Ledger, 5 April 2009
• "Quantum mathematics could boost keyword searches," New Scientist, 4 April 2009
• "Profile: Ken Golden: Cold Equations," Science, 3 April 2009
• "ASU engineering professor has designs on origami," USA Today, 3 April 2009
• Recent "Sexy Maths" columns, by Marcus du Sautoy, TimesOnline, April 2009

March 2009

• Three articles in the March-April 2009 issue of American Scientist: "Writing Math on the Web"; "Knowing When to Stop"; "A Cipher to Thomas Jefferson"
• Recent "Math Matters" columns, by Arvind Gupta, Vancouver Sun, March and April 2009
• "Can Fractals Make Sense of the Quantum World?" New Scientist, 30 March 2009
• "What Would Jesus Bet?" The New Yorker, 30 March 2009
• "Eine falsch angewendete Formel und ihre Folgen (A misapplied formula and its consequences)", Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 29 March 2009
• "Aus der Mathematik in die Politik (From mathematics to politics)", Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 29 March 2009
• "Fractal reality", New Scientist, 28 March 2009
• "Minority Students and Research Universities: How to Overcome the `Mismatch'", Chronicle of Higher Education, 27 March 2009
• "Just Visiting: Sir Roger Penrose," Toronto Star, 23 March 2009
• "Rising Stars", Science, 20 March 2009
• "How to work out percentages," Times Online, 20 March 2009
• "Microsoft did the math, added her to the board," Los Angeles Times, 15 March 2009
  "President of Harvey Mudd College Lands High-Profile Microsoft Board Seat," 20 March 2009
• "A Rooting Interest", Science, 13 March 2009;
  "Rare square dates pair in 2009," USA Today, 28 March 2009
• "Computer---die rigoroseren Mathematiker? (The computer: The more rigorous mathematician?)", Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 11 March 2009
• "Math Matters with Dr. Gupta," Vancouver Sun, 10 March 2009
• "The Four Color Problem Gets a Sharp New Hue," Science News, 6 March 2009
• "Rise of the Robogeeks," New Scientist, 3 March 2009
• "Why fewer women succeed in math," Toronto Star, 3 March 2009
• Coverage of AMS Notices article on an algorithm for solving Sudoku puzzles, March 2009
• Coverage of Mikhael Gromov Winning 2009 Abel Prize, March 2009
• Blogs on the Wolfram Alpha search engine, March 2009

February 2009

• Coverage of mathematical models and their role in the financial crisis, February and March 2009
• Recent columns by Marcus du Sautoy, Times Online, February and March 2009
• "What do we need algebra for?," NPR Weekend Edition, 28 February 2009
• "Scientists build computer model for snowflakes," Boston Globe, 25 February 2009;
  "Snowflakes Accurately Simulated in 3D," Discovery Channel, 16 March 2009;
  "Exquisite Mathematical 'Snowflakes' Replicate Wildly Complex Natural Growth", Scientific Computing, 17 March 2009
• "Simons's Notion: All In, Then All Out," Wall Street Journal, 25 February 2009
• "? = Beauty," Boston Globe, 22 February 2009
• "Only 3.14 More Shopping Days Until Pi Day," Indiana Gazette, 18 February 2009
• "Idea of Infinity Stretched Back to Third Century, B.C.," Live Science, 17 February 2009
• "Editorial: Trying to fathom 13-figure spending", Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 15 February 2009
• "A head 4 figures: How will Marcus du Sautoy make maths fun?" The Independent, 14 February 2009;
  "Credo: Marcus du Sautoy", The Independent, 15 February 2009
• "Take me to your mathematician," New Scientist, 14 February 2008
• "MeetingBriefs: Joint Mathematics Meetings," Science, 13 February 2009;
  "Mathematician Answers Supreme Court Plea," Science News, 24 Februrary 2009
• "Darwin, the Reluctant Mathematician," Science News, 11 February 2009
• "A New Puzzle Challenges Math Skills," New York Times, 9 February 2009
• "And the Oscar Goes to...Not Its Voting System," Wall Street Journal, 6 February 2009
• "Playing with Numbers: Teaching Parents to Teach Math to Pre-School Children," Bangkok Post, 5 February 2009
• "What Are the Odds a Handy, Quotable Statistic Is Lying? Better Than Even": Review of The Numbers Game, by Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot, , 3 February 2009;
  "When numbers deceive." A selection from the book, The Numbers Game, by Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot, The Week, 27 February 2009
• "Math Backs Limited Profiling in Airport Screening," New York Times, 3 February 2009;
  "Math Against Profiling," Scientific American, April 2009
• "Chaos and the Catch of the Day," Scientific American, February 2009

January 2009

• Articles about events at the 2009 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Washington, DC, January 2009:
  "When Art and Math Collide," Science News, 16 January 2009;
  "Of the Algorithms, by the Algorithms, for the Algorithms," Slate, 13 January 2009;
  "Mathematicians Show How Beetles Can Share a Niche," Science News, 6 January 2009;
  "Fighting cholera by the numbers," Naturenews, 9 January 2009;
  "Who Wants to Be a Mathematician?", Washington Post "x=why?" blog, 7 January 2009
• "Calculating the Geography of Crime," Science News, 31 January 2009
• "Math Whiz Stamps Profound Imprint on Computing World," New Mexico Business Weekly, 30 January 2009
• "The Lumberjack and the Mathematician," New Hampshire Public Radio, 30 January 2009
• "Matemática mente (Mathematics mind)", Público, 25 January 2009
• "When numbers don't add up", New Scientist, 24 January 2009
  
• "In Plato's Cave," The Economist, 22 January 2009
• "Math Whizzes Shoot to Set Record for Traversing Subway System," New York Daily News, 22 January 2009;
  "Pair Breaks Subway World Record, Travels Citywide in Less than a Day," New York Daily News, 24 January 2009
• "Asimov's Foundation to Become a Movie," New York Times, 20 January 2009
• "John R. Stallings Jr., 73, California Mathematician, Is Dead", New York Times, 19 January 2009
• "Gegen den Mangel an Beweisen (Against the lack of proof)", Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 11 January 2009
• "Three Q's," Science, 9 January 2009;
  "Four Q's," Science, 16 January 2009
• "The Rush for '21st Century Skills'," Washington Post, 5 January 2009
• "Risk Mismanagement," New York Times Magazine, 4 January 2009;
  "It's Time to Unravel a Financial Knot," New York Times, 25 January 2009
• "Doing the Math to Find the Good Jobs," Wall Street Journal, 5 January 2009;
  "Do Science Jobs Make The Best Careers?", National Public Radio, 16 January 2009
• "Math success doesn't add up for U.S. girls," Science News, 3 January 2009
• "Peek inside a singular mind": Interview with Daniel Tammet, New Scientist, 3 January 2009
• "More or Less?", BBC News January and February 2009
• Recent "Sexy Maths" columns by Marcus du Sautoy, TimesOnline, January 2009

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