Saturday, August 19, 2006

Mathmatacian-ography

A math junkie told me the conference (I think the IMU) is in Madrid this year. I'm out of touch with mathematics, so what can you fellahs close to the field tell me about in regards to the recipient of the Fields Medal? Is there a Russian who is not accepting it too?
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6 comments:

Tecumseh said...

As expected, Perelman received one of the Fields medals, for his stunning proof of the Poincaré conjecture. But even more stunningly, he refused the medal! Anyone care to give an explanation?

8/22/2006 12:45 PM
Tecumseh said...

Here's more on the story. Terence Tao is another guy I expected to win the medal -- he's really amazing.

8/22/2006 12:48 PM
My Frontier Thesis said...

"It is very important indeed because it really gives us an insight into geometry and in particular the geometry of the space we live in," said Oxford University math professor Marcus du Sautoy. "It does not say what the shape (of the universe) is. It just says, 'look, these are the things it could be.'"

Okay, I have a feeling that if I looked at the particular equation, or the proof, blood would likely shoot straight from my ear. Anyhow, is this about the gist of it, as the yahoo journalist report goes?

8/22/2006 8:26 PM
Tecumseh said...

That's basically BS. If you want to see the equations for Ricci flow, look here. If you want to understand what they say about Ricci curvature, you can try here or here.

8/22/2006 9:58 PM
Tecumseh said...

Here is some guy blogging about the math congress in Madrid. Kind of funny... JJ would give an even more jaundiced view, that's for sure.

8/23/2006 12:04 AM
My Frontier Thesis said...

AI, the first Ricci flow link was a bit difficult to understand, but that's probably because I'm not up to date with the mathematical jargon.

The Ricci curvature link, however, makes perfect sense.

8/24/2006 12:41 PM

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