gossip from the maths world
months ago, i posted something on the seven millennium problems, whose solutions will get be credited one million usd from clay institute. less than one decade into the new millennium, some progress has been made. i’m not posting any solutions or insights. but the following articles that “shed a different light” on the academia. yes. zero maths inside them.
the poincare conjecture: this one is almost confirmed solved by a “reclusive” russian, called perelman. Interesting thing is that he was awarded the fields medal (equivalent of nobel in maths) but he refused it on “moral grounds”. the following article details the so-called tussles over who solved it, but sheds a “bad light” over the politics in the academia. one of the authors of the article also wrote the book “the beautiful mind” and she tends to write only things (and perhaps skew them) in support of her view. to be fair to prof yau (and i feel that there’s sensationalisation on the part of the journalists), here is his defence.
the navier-stokes equation: prof penny smith on last sept posted her solution to this problem on the web. within two weeks, a major flaw was discovered and the paper was withdrawn. the interesting thing is that the error was not discovered through convention means. that is, a journal engages a referee to review the paper and hence point out mistakes. instead it was discovered through a forum discussion on a blog. and i remind you, it took less than two weeks of discussion to discover it. here’s another article entitled the proof is in the blogging.
last, the most famous of them all, the riemann hypothesis. the solution was posted online only on 19 mar 2007. no one has discovered any flaw yet. the interesting thing is that the solution was given by a 77 year old prof called Tribikram Pati from Allahabad University. it’s pretty extraordinary as most results are produced by young mathematicians. not being racist or nationalist or watever, the description here of prof pati makes him sound v unconventional and funny. in particular, i quote, “He is such a modest person that he gives credit for all his achievements to the divine revelations.”
months ago, i posted something on the seven millennium problems, whose solutions will get be credited one million usd from clay institute. less than one decade into the new millennium, some progress has been made. i’m not posting any solutions or insights. but the following articles that “shed a different light” on the academia. yes. zero maths inside them.
the poincare conjecture: this one is almost confirmed solved by a “reclusive” russian, called perelman. Interesting thing is that he was awarded the fields medal (equivalent of nobel in maths) but he refused it on “moral grounds”. the following article details the so-called tussles over who solved it, but sheds a “bad light” over the politics in the academia. one of the authors of the article also wrote the book “the beautiful mind” and she tends to write only things (and perhaps skew them) in support of her view. to be fair to prof yau (and i feel that there’s sensationalisation on the part of the journalists), here is his defence.
the navier-stokes equation: prof penny smith on last sept posted her solution to this problem on the web. within two weeks, a major flaw was discovered and the paper was withdrawn. the interesting thing is that the error was not discovered through convention means. that is, a journal engages a referee to review the paper and hence point out mistakes. instead it was discovered through a forum discussion on a blog. and i remind you, it took less than two weeks of discussion to discover it. here’s another article entitled the proof is in the blogging.
last, the most famous of them all, the riemann hypothesis. the solution was posted online only on 19 mar 2007. no one has discovered any flaw yet. the interesting thing is that the solution was given by a 77 year old prof called Tribikram Pati from Allahabad University. it’s pretty extraordinary as most results are produced by young mathematicians. not being racist or nationalist or watever, the description here of prof pati makes him sound v unconventional and funny. in particular, i quote, “He is such a modest person that he gives credit for all his achievements to the divine revelations.”
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