Sphere packing might seem like a topic only a mathematician could love. Who else could get excited about finding the most efficient way to arrange circles in the plane, or spheres in space? But right now, millions of people all over the world are thinking about this very problem. From a report: Determining how to safely reopen buildings and public spaces…
Tag: math
How many ETs are in our galaxy? Ask the Alien Civilization Calculator
Researchers at Omni Calculator have created the Alien Civilization Calculator, a unique combination of two different methods of trying to determine how many advanced alien civilizations may exist in our galaxy. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/alien-civilization-calculator-extraterrestrial-intelligence-seti…
Mathematician Ronald Graham Dies At 84
The American Mathematical Society has announced the passing of Ronald Graham, “one of the principal architects of the rapid development worldwide of discrete mathematics in recent years.” He died July 6th at the age of 84. From the report: Graham published more than 350 papers and books with many collaborators, including more than 90 with his wife, Fan Chung, and more…
‘Largest Distributed Peer-To-Peer Grid’ On Earth Laying Foundation For A Decentralized Internet
Forbes reports on ThreeFold, an ambitious new “long-term project to rewire the internet in the image of its first incarnation: decentralized, unowned, accessible, free.” “We have 18,000 CPU cores and 90 million gigabytes, which is a lot of capacity,” founder Kristof de Spiegeleer told me recently on the TechFirst podcast. “It’s probably between five and ten times more than all of…
Sally Ride: 1st American woman in space
Ride was the 1st American woman to go to space, flying on the STS-7 space shuttle Challenger mission in 1983, and later on another mission in 1984. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/sally-ride-1st-american-woman-in-space-june-18-1983…
The ‘Useless’ Perspective That Transformed Mathematics
Representation theory was initially dismissed. Today, it’s central to much of mathematics. From a report: When representation theory emerged in the late 19th century, many mathematicians questioned its worth. In 1897, the English mathematician William Burnside wrote that he doubted that this unorthodox perspective would yield any new results at all. “Basically what [Burnside was] saying is that representation theory is…
Scientists to strike on June 10 #ShutDownSTEM #Strike4BlackLives
EarthSky is joining the grassroots effort to #ShutDownSTEM and #Strike4BlackLives on Wednesday, June 10. Thousands of researchers around the world have pledged to pause their work on Wednesday to support the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement and efforts against racism in the scientific community and society at large. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/shutdownstem-strike4blacklives-june-10-2020…
America’s Switch To Remote Learning For 50 Million Students Called ‘A Failure’
“This spring, America took an involuntary crash course in remote learning,” writes the Wall Street Journal, noting it affected 50 million students from kindergarten through 12th grade. “With the school year now winding down, the grades from students, teachers, parents and administrators is already in: It was a failure…”
The problems began piling up almost immediately… Soon many districts weren’t requiring students…
Has mystery of universe’s missing matter been solved?
Cosmologists have only been able to find half the matter that should exist in the universe. With the discovery of a new astronomical phenomenon and new telescopes, these researchers say they’ve just found the rest. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/cosmic-bursts-unveil-universe-missing-matter-mystery…
An inmate’s love of mathematics leads to discovery in number theory
Christopher Havens came upon his love of math while in solitary confinement. A decade later, he published a paper on number theory in a top mathematics journal. Source: https://www.livescience.com/prisoner-makes-math-number-theory-discovery.html