One of the reasons that the nature of mathematics has been such an enigma, is that we associate it with thought, and we tend to distinguish thought from the physical world. We do find mathematics in natural structures – some of these beautifully represented in a film you may have seen called Nature by the […]
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I saw an opinion piece by Stephen Ornes, in the March 16 issue of New Scientist which ties the ongoing debate about the nature of mathematical ideas, to a modern one about money and ownership. Ornes argues that patentability is one of the most hotly contested issues in software development. The problem, as many see […] My interest in mathematics is more personal than it is academic. I learned what I know formally, in the usual sequence of undergraduate and graduate math courses. But it has penetrated my personal life, and I have come to see mathematics as deeply rooted in a fundamental human drive to live more, or to live […] In a blog back in January, I referenced a talk given by David Deutsch in which he made the argument that, while empiricism has been the basis of science, empiricism alone is inadequate because scientific theories explain the seen in terms of the unseen. What we see, in all these cases, bears no resemblance to […] We adopted a dog a couple of months ago, and there have been moments when I have watched a change in his attention or a change in his behavior, and wondered how his awareness might be structured. When we drive with him, he usually sits in front of the back seats of our Honda Element, […] I’ve always been intrigued by the sensation of movement in music. And it is fair to say that it was my first calculus class that led me to graduate study in mathematics because, for the first time, I saw movement in mathematics. My fascination with each of these was nudged again by an interview with […] I read a few articles today that brought aesthetic and religious expression, mathematical curiosity, and physical discovery into contact. A recent Physics World article reported that an architectural researcher found the first examples of perfect quasicrystal patterns in Islamic architecture. Also known as Penrose tiles, these patterns were described mathematically by Roger Penrose in […] I have tried to make the argument, in some of the things I have written, that mathematics experiments with the ways we are able to ‘see.’ But there is a great deal of complexity in what it means ‘to see.’ ‘Seeing’ and ‘reasoning’ are not easily unraveled. An infant’s ‘intuitive physics,’ the subject of recent […] Hearing about visual processes, from neuroscientists and artists alike, consistently brings mathematical thoughts to mind for me – like Samir Zeki’s descriptions of how visual images are constructed, or the Impressionist painters’ attention to the sensations in the eye rather than the subject of the painting, and, of course, Poincaré’s suggestion that visual space has […] In another blogging heads interview (and in a related blog), John Horgan explores with David Rothenberg the significance of beauty in scientific thinking. Rothenberg’s new book Survival of the Beautiful, is the subject of much of their discussion. While the conversation centers on questions of beauty (how biology does or does not take it into […] |
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