Home About Edge Features Edge Editions ... CLIFFORD PICKOVER Thomas J. Watson Research Center, IBM Yorktown Heights, New York I'm not going anywhere exotic this summer, but I'll be creating new artwork and publishing some science-fiction novels. Throughout history, experiments, ideas and conclusions originating in the play of the mind have found striking and unexpected practical applications. In fact, many amazing mathematical findings have been made by amateurs, from homemakers to lawyers. These amateurs developed new ways to look at problems! that stumped the experts. Science is filled with hundreds of examples of great discoveries and inventions that have come about through chance happenings and serendipity: Velcro, teflon, X-rays, penicillin, nylon.... Why not math too? Cliff Postcards from: Robert Sapolsky Lee Smolin Steven Pinker Gino Segre ... Daniel C. Dennett | |
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