Dances, Billiards, and Pretzels When I came to the Heidelberg Laureate Forum, I expected a feast for my mind. I didn’t expect a feast for my eyes! Take a look at this incredible video, by Diana Davis, which was … 24. Sep 2013 | By Dana Mackenzie | 2 comments
Diskussionen – Diskussionen überall Der zweite Tag des Forums nähert sich dem Ende. Ich muss sagen, meine Begeisterung für dieses Event steigt kontinuierlich. Neben einer großartigen Organisation von Seiten der HLF Stiftung, sind es vor allem die kleinen Dinge, … 24. Sep 2013 | By Tim Conrad | 3 comments
Michael Atiyah on exposition Sir Michael Atiyah is known for is expository writing and speaking as well as his profound contributions to mathematics. The following is an excerpt from my conversation with Atiyah discussing his views on mathematical exposition. … 24. Sep 2013 | By John D. Cook | 1 comment
Making computers smarter, and helping deaf people too A friend of mine is very hard of hearing — not quite deaf enough to fully belong to the deaf community, but sufficiently deaf that participating in a conversation is terribly hard work for her. … 24. Sep 2013 | By Julie Rehmeyer | 0 comments
Notes from Monday: If you are a young scientist, … “If you are a young scientist, put yourself in the environment of a real genius. You will learn so much, you never expected.” Ed Feigenbaum during the afternoon panel discussion. “Evidence from pure thought: No-one … 24. Sep 2013 | By Beatrice Lugger | 0 comments
Wer hat’s erfunden? D. R. Reddy auf der Suche nach dem Erfinder des Computers “Wer die Vergangenheit nicht kennt, kann die Gegenwart nicht verstehen und die Zukunft nicht gestalten.” Ich bezweifle, dass Dabbala Rajagopal Reddy (Turing Award 1994) vorstehendes Zitat aus einer Bundestagsrede Helmut Kohls kannte, als er beschloss, … 24. Sep 2013 | By Tarek R. Besold | 4 comments
Die Schönheit der Mathematik Im Vortrag von Curtis T. McMullen – “Billards and curves in moduli space” wurde gerade gezeigt, dass die Verbindung von Mathematik und Kunst mehr als “Malen nach Zahlen” ist. Auch wenn die Theorie hinter dem … 23. Sep 2013 | By Marlene Knoche | 0 comments
Saxophone quartets and probability Saxophone quartets consist of four saxophones, usually a baritone, tenor, alto, and soprano, or maybe a second alto instead of a soprano. Because all saxophones are essentially the same instrument, just at different sizes, the … 23. Sep 2013 | By John D. Cook | 2 comments
Isadore Singer I’m at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum at the moment, where they’ve brought 39 winners of the biggest prizes in math and computer science together with young researchers, modeled on the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. The … 23. Sep 2013 | By Julie Rehmeyer | 1 comment
Built-in errors: William Kahan and floating point arithmetic Computers. We all know that inside, there are just (finitely many) little zeroes and ones being manipulated. Which means that there’s a fundamental mismatch between real numbers, they of the generally infinite tail of decimal … 23. Sep 2013 | By Markus Pössel | 1 comment